(first posted in 2010 at TTAC; 12/19/2014 at CC) The 1980s was the worst decade ever for GM. It lost a full ten points of market share, starting the decade with 45%, and ending with 35%, an unprecedented disaster. Its stock over the same period dropped some 50%. And the car that kicked off that decade of hell, and helped propel GM towards its continued long term decline, especially in passenger car production, was the 1980 Citation.
So much was riding on it and its X-Body stablemates, as they represented the very future of GM: more compact and efficient FWD cars. But GM bungled it, and the Citation came to represent everything that was wrong. It had one of the most spectacular first years ever for a new car, and then it crashed, almost instantly. It makes the Vega look like a Toyota in comparison.
Of course numbers don’t tell the whole story, but I challenge you to find another newly introduced car that did so well in its first year and whose sales collapsed so spectacularly thereafter. And that 811k in 1980 doesn’t tell the whole story: the Citation was so popular, supply couldn’t keep up with demand. Folks waited months for their deadly sins to be delivered, and Chevy might well have been able to sell a million in the lengthened 1980 MY if they could have made them fast enough. But they were so poorly built, the drop-off was almost instantaneous. By its fourth year, the Citation had dropped some 90%. And in 1985, it was all over. And how many of those some 1.5 million Citation buyers swore off GM cars forever?
Having jumped ahead to the final outcome, let’s step back a bit and consider the setting for this tragedy. For the third time at the beginning of a new decade, GM was determined to take on the import competition. In 1960, it was the VW Beetle, and GM countered with the conceptually similar (rear engine) but bigger Corvair. It failed at its intended mission for a number of reasons, but there were no egregious issues with its quality or durability (for the standards of the time). But GM had cut corners, and had to make a series of improvements to its suspension to save face, including a substantially redesigned second generation, even though the Corvair was by then already doomed.
In 1970, it was Toyota and Datsun, as well as a few fading European imports that GM countered with the Vega. Despite them all being highly conventional rwd cars, Chevrolet bungled the Vega’s engine and rust-resistance. And although build quality was certainly not up to the Japanese competition’s level, it was not atrocious, in terms of what was yet to come.
For 1980, GM had the revolutionary Honda Accord in its visor, as well as the goal of redefining the compact American car in an all-new fwd package. The Citation and its X-Body brethren from Pontiac, Olds and Buick were the closing number of GM’s overly-ambitious downsizing drama in three acts, which had begun three years earlier.
Make no mistake: this mammoth undertaking that would result in the 1977 Caprice and the rest of the full-sized line up, the 1978 Malibu and the other midsized cars, and the 1980 Citation and friends was no less than the biggest single corporate industrial re-investment ever up to that time. GM was betting its whole future here, and we all know how it turned out.
GM’s biggest act of hubris was in even thinking it could execute such an undertaking, given its history. And clearly, the results got worse with each act. The fact that the Citation would be GM’s first ever-front wheel drive mass-market car didn’t help. As well as GM’s perpetual obsession with the next quarter’s profit. The mega-billions GM committed to its downsizing was taking its toll on the bottom line, and the Citation was behind schedule. Switching production facilities and suppliers over to a completely new generation of cars was taking its toll. GM’s corporate culture was not in fighting trim, unaccustomed to such complex demands.
Typical for GM, the Citation looked best on paper, or to the automotive writers who were suckered when they drive the most un-production-like “ringers” ever hand assembled and wrote breathless reports on the Citation’s spectacular “better than a BMW” abilities. Naturally, it won Motor Trend’s Car of the Year, which all too often was a portend of disaster soon to come. Not long ago, C/D’s Patrick Bedard wrote a mea-culpa about how they fell for GM’s bait.
The Citation’s basic body package was highly modern for the times, with a very roomy interior, a practical hatchback (a notch-back coupe was available but never popular), lightweight (2500 lbs), and featuring a new transverse engine/transaxle arrangement. On paper, it was a brilliant achievement.
Unforgivably, GM’s greatest industrial re-investment didn’t include a new four cylinder engine. The noisy, crude and rude “Iron Duke” 2.5 L OHV four was adapted for its new east-west orientation, and shook 90 hp from its crankshaft. This alone was a colossal mistake; a properly modern and smooth new four would have gone a long way to soothe the other discomforts of the Citation experience. The Accord’s four was like an electric motor in comparison; so much for meeting the competition head on, with an engine suited for a tractor.
Admittedly, GM was a more ambitious with the optional engine: the nigh-immortal 60-degree V6, built until 2010 in China. In its first incarnation here, it had 2.8 L and 115 hp (110 beginning in 1981).
And in 1981, the sporty X-11 Citation was graced with a bumped-up HO version, which churned out 135 hp. Just the ticket to fully display the Citation’s truly prodigious torque steer and other entertaining characteristics, some of them quite genuine, especially in later model years.
Since quietness was always disproportionately high on the list of criteria for GM cars, and because neither of the Citation’s engines were intrinsically quiet and smooth, extreme measures were taken to isolate them from the passenger compartment. The front subframe that carried the drive train and front suspension was attached to the body with very soft rubber mounts. This led to a remarkable sensation during acceleration.
It felt as if your favorite X-Car was composed of two separate components (which it sort of was), or to take the analogy further, it felt like the body was a semi-trailer hooked to the back of a semi-truck. Floor it, and the truck tractor started heading one direction (left, if I remember correctly) while the trailer both followed as well as tried to keep the truck from running off the roadway. Amusing, sort of. I had the chance to do it several times a day, in my Skylark company car. And I got quite good at it: kind of like crabbing an airplane. I did used to wonder if one day my car’s front sub frame would just fully detach and head off into to the median by itself; it sure seemed to want to very badly.
One might eventually get used to that, and if you had a good running V6, these cars could feel pretty lively given their light weight. But what goes fast must slow down, eventually, especially in LA traffic. And that’s where the fun disappeared, in a cloud of burning rubber. GM made almost the same penny-ante mistake with Citation as with the Corvair. Then, they left off a $14 camber-compensating spring. Now it was a $14 (?) rear brake proportioning valve. Drivers complained, NHTSA sued GM, which GM ended up winning in 1987, way too late: the perception/sales battle was then long lost. My Skylark with wider tires and wheels wasn’t too bad that way, but I once drove a four cylinder Citation that was highly prone. Let’s just say that my old Peugeot 404 had a very effective ride-height sensing rear proportioning valve even though it was rwd, and the Citation didn’t, with 60% of its weight on the front.
That was just for starters (and stoppers). In between, a seemingly endless rash of maladies made these cars recall kings and queens. Transmission hoses that leaked and cause fires. Various driveability issues: fuel injection was deemed too expensive; meanwhile the two-barrel carb on the V6 was the most complicated and expensive fuel mixing device Rube Goldberg was ever commissioned to design. (A replacement cost over $1000 in today’s money, as I well know). Shifting the manual transmission was like sending messages to a distant cohort in secret code via carrier pigeon. The X-Cars had to be recalled numerous times.
The Citation interiors were hard and cheap. Sundry pieces of trim were prone to suddenly disassociating themselves from the rest of the car, in shame perhaps. Starting on day one. General build quality varied greatly, somewhere between miserable and mediocre. Cost cutting resulted in skin cutting from rough edges. Within one model year, the word was out and the jig was up: the Citation was a lemon.
In a truly cynical move, GM found the pennies to add a “II” suffix to the Citation in 1984, even though anyone would be hard pressed to see any difference. Enough fools fell for the Citation II to bump sales by 5k units that year, before they realized that it was just a Citation Too.
What really must have burned GM with the Citation’s flame out was that Toyota was dealing with the exact same challenge: to convert its RWD Carina/Corona lines to fwd. The all-new Camry appeared in 1983, just as the Citation was crashing. Ironically, the Camry had a distinctly Citation-ish look to it too, especially the hatchback. But looks can be deceiving. First year Camrys are considered solid and long-lived. I can think of no better example of the contrasting state of affairs that predicted their makers’ respective trajectories in 1983 than these two similar and yet so different cars. GM’s Death Warrant Exhibit A.
Perhaps we should just leave it there, but there is a relevant if ironic postscript to the Citation: it became essentially immortal, in new garb. The Chevy Celebrity and its A-Body kin were nothing more than a Citation inner body and platform with a new exterior suit, although the doors undoubtedly interchange. The magic of a restyle and a little attention to working out the most blatant kinks resulted in a long-lived career (through 1996), at least for the Olds and Buick versions. And eventually they got fairly reliable…just a bit too late.
But the A-Bodies are just the most obvious genetic offshoot. Let’s face it; just about every fwd GM car built since the first Citation that torque-steered its way off the assembly line has X-chromosomes in it, to one degree or another. The Citation was GM’s starting point with the fwd car, as well as the beginning of its end.
Related reading:
1971 Chevrolet Vega: GM’s Deadly Sin #2
1986 Toyota Camry: Toyota Builds a Better Citation, Forever
Citation II. That’s better than Chrysler by Chrysler.
Those sales figures are astonishing.
I remember the first time I saw one of these in 1980. The car happened to be uphill from where I was standing, so I could see its undercarriage clearly. The rear axle was just a piece of bar stock, not a custom-made and custom-shaped casting like every other part of every other PROFESSIONALLY BUILT car. A high school shop class could have done better. That’s when I knew GM was done for.
You need to look a little closer at some other vehicles who have just a simple piece of “pipe” for their rear axle. A simple piece of stock in the middle of a solid axle on a FWD car was the norm.
My 1990 Toyota Corona diesel wagon had a round stock pipe for a rear axle on leaf springs listed as a commercial delivery van by Toyota as is the diesel Corolla base wagon which has a similar rear axle setup they are quite popular for building utility trailers as the Toyota unit already has brakes fitted. These car were updated in the sheetmetal to match the later Corona/Carina/cars but ended production in the late 90s early 21st century, be carefull when you criticise GM for being cheap every car manufacturer does them especially the Japanese. If you really want to see sophisticated rear axles on a FWD car have a look under a French car then you’ll have an inkling of why they will out corner things like BMWs with their prehistoric RWD set ups.
dont hate me…but honestly ? I loved the Citation when it first came out. Thought it was so cool. I liked almst every US car of that era. The Chevy Blazer, the Camaro, the Malibu and then those X-Bdies. They were comparatively cheap in Germany and came loaded with options, when most other German cars were dragging around as strippers. Powered seats were a thing of unheard frivolous luxury back in those days. Quite a few of them made it over the pond but they all disappeared quickly after the second oil crisis hit hard in 1979 / 1980.
No hate here.
Everybody bags on 80s GM, but for ideas they were cool.
And really, who really GAINED by GM’s implosion?
Also, the WHOLE 80s? I sure love my ’88 Reatta…
Companies that made better cars benefited by the implosion of GM, as did everyone who bought those superior cars as a result.
AT FIRST, I also lusted after the X-cars. I was a devoted reader of David E. Davis and Pat Bedard over at “Car & Driver” magazine and devoured every word of their laudatory praise (later retracted and explained, as Paul mentions).
I had mentally composed an option list for a classy, uptown looking dark blue Skylark with silver/gray cloth interior, V6 engine and the optional suspension package.
But, luckily for me, 2 friends of mine worked in the service departments of the local Chevy and Buick franchises. Their continuous stories of X-car “issues” gave me pause.
I took my automotive lust (and bucks) to GM’s competitors. And have ever since then.
Skylark was my favorite too.
I drooled over a particular Skylark advertisement in “Auto Motor Sport” where the car was set against a backdrop of a nightly big city silhouette with sparkling stars up in the sky.
The marketing message was something like: where can you get that level of luxury paired with economy at this affordable price?
A fully equipped Skylark would set you back around 20.000 DM back then. That would have been the equivalent to a stark nude / naked MB 200 D (stripper) with not even a radio on board.
That explained why Swiss drivers devoured the American cars in the late 1970s and early 1980s despite the steep fuel price and tight roads and parking spaces.
I had 1982 Buick Skylark that was fully appointed with many luxury and power accessories. My German friends were amazed at low retail price and plush ride.
Right Oliver.
Also, just like the Dutchies the Swiss had no national car industry and thus made no chauvinistic car purchases. They were pretty much open to any brands as long as they would offer a good deal. Nowhere else but in Switzerland and Netherland could you see as many US cars back in those days.
The Netherlands had DAF! I lived in Hilversum in 1984 and only saw an occasional Detroit product. I do recall seeing a Plymouth Scamp with 3.7 Liter badges on its flanks though.
DAF (as a car brand) was already history by then. In 1984 this was our national pride, the Volvo 340 series. By the way, they build Minis now in the former DAF~Volvo plant.
@CjinSD…I was more kinda like referring to the 70s and had places like Amsterdam in the back of my mind when I wrote this 😉
I remember that advertisement! I was in Germany in the late 1970’s when the X cars launched. That ad made an impression on me all those years ago….
you do? cool.
The car on the picture was in motion and the illuminated rear lights were trailing kind of red stripes of light, as if the camera that was used for this shot, had it´s lens opened for too long.
Loved that motive.
Yes, it’s like it had been photographed by keeping the shutter open too long. Now that’s an easy effect in Photoshop…
I loved the new ’80 Phoenix, and was a nice car to sit in at Auto Show then. But some relatives had a new Citiation that needed a whole new trans in first 6 months. And they went to Toyota next car.
Ford also benefitted from GM owners switching sides, too.
Pontiac Phoenix, Buick Skylark, Oldsmobile Omega and of course the Citation. I remember all of these when these could be seen roaring on the roads in Europe during the ’80’s till the mid ’90’s until they simply extinct as daily drivers. Some of the last survivors that I am able to see from time to time has replaced inline 4 Opel OHC engines and implanted manual floorshift transmissons. Few examples with original configuration could be seen on amcar meetings… One time I had driven a Skylark with original 2.8 V6 automatic… It went fine. Aesthetically the Citation and Phoneix looked better.
Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Chevy…aren’t we missing one? 😉
I don’t think so. Are you thinking that the J-body Cimarron was an X-Car?
There are some jewels that came out of the 80’s for GM, even a handful of highly prized vehicles like the 89 Corvette ZR1, 86 Pontiac 6000 STE (AWD), Buick Grand National GNX Turbo.
It was not as bad as the car world makes it out to be. My Opinion anyway….
I see a lot of Vauxhall Cavalier in it’s looks.Citation wasn’t a good name,I always associate it with traffic cops and bald tyres.
As Phil Llewellyn said to a US traffic cop, “In Britain we get a citation with a medal, not a speeding fine”
Only mistake GM didn’t make: They didn’t call it the Allegro.
LOL,at least your Dad never had one!
True Gem my dad bought Australian and a Japanese J type Holden Camiras there are more Allegros alive here now than Camiras and they have a better reputation.
I always think of the top of the line 1958 Edsel….or Cessna’s very successful line of business jets.
The cars and aircraft were all named after this guy…..
I remember all the ads for the Citation when I was a kid. “The First Chevy of the 80’s” If I remember correctly the first model 1980 cars came out in early 1979?
The Citation was introduced in April 1979. It was thus The First Chevy of The ’80s both literally and figuratively. Paul did reference the extended model year: “Chevy might well have been able to sell a million in the lengthened 1980 MY if they could have made them fast enough”.
According to the Standard Catalog, about 279K ’80 Citations were sold during the 1979 model year. That means about 538K were sold during the 1980 model year proper. That’s a lot less eye-popping than 811K, and also makes the dropoff from ’80 to ’81 a bit less dramatic. Still, I doubt that any single model of passenger car (or any type of vehicle except full-size pickups) has achieved that level of sales since. And however high its initial heights were, you can where sales ended up by ’82 or ’83.
Sorry on the math, 811K – 279K = 532K (not 538K).
The recession of 1980-82 also hurt new car sales, with 19% interest on ‘good’ loans. But by 1982, the ‘jig was up’ and X cars tanked.
But at same time, GM seemed to give up on them and promoted the A and J cars. Then, the RWD cars made a comeback in MY 1983. Their momentum was killed when they were dropped for the FWD C/H.
Classic GM. When a model line of theirs starts getting bad, or at least not wonderful, publicity; they promptly act like they never made the car in the first place and go on to the next new model.
Which is why, during all the years that Toyota sold the Corolla, Chevrolet sold the Vega/Chevette/Cavalier/Cobalt/Cruze.
But then, Corolla never got a bad name. Which is exactly the point.
They could have been so good…
Ive seen one of these with a for sale sign propped against the windscreen out on the Hauraki plains judging by the grass at doorhandle height people asking for test flights were few and far between, people used to complain about diff noise in early 80s Commodores but compared to these Citations they were technological marvels and well nailed together.
It’s really a shame because GM really nailed it with the design.
In my opinion, the Citation looks far better than its X-car siblings.
There is a very nice one for sale, on my side of the Atlantic, less than 4 hours away !
http://ww3.autoscout24.fr/classified/259461734?asrc=st
Love that smashed grapes body color and that typical Chevy pale yellow baby flegm interior.
Which I had 4.500 € to blow ’cause I’ll already be on the road…
That Citation in the French classified ad is mostly a grey import, not official ECE version.
The clue is the taillamps in the photo. The amber turn signal indicators are in the centre while the European version has them on the outer side.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/80-81-Chevrolet-Citation-Taillight-RH-GM-NOS-914806-/220561312252
I concur with the author’s experience regarding the subframe. I bought a second-hand 1982 Buick Skylark from the company fleet in 1986 because it was so cheap and a temporary measure.
A year later, a long bolt attaching the subframe to the chassis under the driver’s side broke in half. The repair manual showed the procedure of replacing the bolt, which was the easiest procedure of all. Unfortunately, it had no procedure for removing the stuck top half. I ended up pulling the carpet in the driver’s legroom out and cut away the sheetmetal to access the top half. An hour of trying to remove the bolt with vise grip and different measures, I decided to weld a nut to the broken bolt and finally removed it.
I don’t know if any of you are aware of the technical peculiarity with that 2-bbl carburettor for V6 motors. The cover screw that attached the fuel line to the carburettor has a thread in opposite direction of what every screw on the planet is built. You have to turn clockwise to loosen it and anti-clockwise to tighten it. When I bought the fuel filter, I was given a very terse warning to be very careful about the turning direction. Unfortunately, I tightened the screw too hard and stripped partially the aluminium thread inside the carburettor. Consequently, a small fuel leak led to a bonfire party under the bonnet…
GM had the right strategy with these but just didn’t give them (or similar cars like my parents’ Chevette) the effort they needed to be successful long term.
My parents were among those driven away by quality issues with cars like this, such that they like some other people seem to have forgotten GM also could and did build good cars. Mom always sits in my Electra for the first time in a few months and says something “hey this is actually a pretty nice car” “well, GM made more than Chevettes, mom”. We always laugh because it’s true, how did such a POS and an unkillable tank come out of the same company? Somehow, they did.
If only that kind of quality went into these, they’d have been a GM greatest hit. That nearly defunct Chrysler would end up leading the domestic class in compacts tells me that GM and Ford could design small cars but didn’t really want to build them. How else can one explain rock solid Caprices and Crown Victorias selling on the same lot as Citations and Tempos.
I do think they are attractive little cars though, even for penalty boxes.
“We always laugh because it’s true, how did such a POS and an unkillable tank come out of the same company?”
That’s easy. It all has to do with the company philosophy (non-written) at the time.
GM believed in big cars. GM loved big cars, and the profits they made. GM executives drove those self-same big cars. Big cars were “real cars” to GM management.
Conversely, GM only made small cars because they HAD to. First, to keep from losing sales to all those “wierdos” who insisted on driving small, four cylinder automobiles . . . . even when there were proper big cars available for only a few dollars more. Later, for governmental reasons.
No GM top-floor executive ever drove one of their small cars for more than an hour or so in the course of an afternoon. Definitely no GM executive would have tolerated being issued one of the company’s small cars as their daily driver, no matter how optioned or serviced by the company garage.
And finally, GM small cars were deliberately done cheap. Partially to keep the profit margins up, partially to given the loyal (or so they thought) GM customer the incentive to upgrade to one of their better models the next time out. There was no way that, say, Chevrolet division wanted a customer to become a 30-year, multiple copy, Vega owner. Chevrolet expected their customers to trade that Vega in on a Nova (at least) and eventually settle in with Impalas for the rest of his life.
It never occurred to them that: a: After a shitty small car or two, the customer might go to another brand rather than upgrade to a bigger, finer car; and, b. There were perfectly sane customers out there who liked the idea of driving a small car with a four cylinder engine all their lives. And if GM couldn’t make progressively better models under than spec, then somebody else damn well could.
Well said, I agree 100%. This is a great summation on GM and its attitude toward small cars.
That is the best explanation for the GM deadly sin phenomenon I have ever read. It makes complete sense. It seems no one at GM had any enthusiasm for this project.
This was different for Ford when they developed the Taurus. They wanted to be “best in class”. I believe Lew Veraldi said: “There is no point in aiming for second place. As a result you will only fail at being mediocre.”
“No GM top-floor executive ever drove one of their small cars for more than an hour or so in the course of an afternoon. Definitely no GM executive would have tolerated being issued one of the company’s small cars as their daily driver, no matter how optioned or serviced by the company garage.”
That was perfectly put. In a way I get the feeling that history is repeating itself today.
Sean, I drove a Sonic a few weeks back. Felt more solid than the Cadillac DTS’s I was renting for my job ten years ago. And my wife’s Equinox LTZ feels nothing like that old falling-apart feeling all GM FWDs once had.
GM was #1 and was like “What are you going to do? buy a Ford? HAHAHA”
“Conversely, GM only made small cars because they HAD to. First, to keep from losing sales to all those “wierdos” who insisted on driving small, four cylinder automobiles . . . . even when there were proper big cars available for only a few dollars more. Later, for governmental reasons.”
You nailed it here. Building cars –or doing anything for that matter–for ‘compliance reasons’ when someone essentially has a gun at your head only results in the least to get by. Ive long said that people who want American cars generally don’t want an American cammacoord since they can get that at Honda and Toyota…those cars are very Japanese in flavor. If we want the Big 3 to succeed, they shouldn’t be set up to fail, rather unleashed to do what we do best.
It wasn’t just the brass at GM that disliked the small cars. The salesmen didn’t like them much either as I recall. In 1986 I needed a new car, and I wanted quality because while I could afford a car I couldn’t afford to have any problems. This, by 1986 meant Honda or Toyota. However, they were expensive – it was always sticker or more because they were selling well. GM on the other hand, was hurting. I thought I had found a way to have the best of both worlds. Toyota and GM had just opened the joint NUMI plant in California and were building Toyota Corollas and Checy Novas which were identical except for trim.
I decided that I would buy a Nova- and that GM’s unpopularity would allow bargaining on price that the Toyota badge on the same car would get.
At the Chevy dealership, I told the old salesman that I wanted to see a Nova. He ignored what I said, and took me over to look at a Caprice(?). When I pointed out that I was only interested in the Nova, he simply refused to show me one, saying “Son, there just ain’t no room to move on them small cars.” I suspect that most small car customers at GM got the same treatment in those days. I ended up buying a first-year Integra, a great, great car.
Ford and GMH tried that in Australia building what they do best large ish six and eight cylinder rear drive sedans wagons and utes and the traditional customer base was found to be shopping elsewhere, unless you build what the market wants you’ll fail.
I’ll just pile on with the “you hit it” accolades here beause I do think that is basically what happened.
Now, it probably worked for some people. Hell, in microcosm it worked for me. The very same day I drove a county government cast off stripper Citation, the only “luxury” being a manual transmission. Lets just say I was underwhelmed. Then later I jumped in a similar era Caprice. Even having seen better days, it looked like a Fleetwood compared to the Citation. It sounded way better, drove way better, looked way better. I was sold.
Now, of course, that was just me driving it and not buying one new but I can see where that is probably what GM was thinking buyers would do. Don’t like the dinky hatchbacks with 4 bangers in them? Well, step right up to a “real car”, like this Caprice, my man! Once you get that promotion, come on back and we’ll fit you for a Pontiac or maybe a Buick…
The funny thing is I actually agree with the philosophy given that my taste runs to big cars–whether it be a stripper vinyl Impala or disco-tastic Fleetwood Talisman over ANY small car as such; unfortunately it was not a practical one given changing market tastes/everybody is not exactly like me 🙂
Oh absolutely. If GM was just selling to people like us it would have worked.
Hear, hear. Despite all its market research people, GM totally missed the boat on the major shift that occurred in the 1970s, largely spurred by the two oil crises. When our ’68 Ford Galaxie died in 1977, my father talked to a friend of his who’d bought a VW Rabbit and liked it. My father had grown up in the Depression and liked the idea of not buying more car than he needed, and with gas prices what they were (and expected to go higher), the Rabbit made a lot of sense.
Now, I will admit that the Rabbit was not the greatest car ever made. But for 1977, it was pretty damn good. It was roomy for its size, fuel-efficient, and technologically advanced (FWD and fuel injection), with straightforward controls–all things the American companies couldn’t seem to figure out. And the key was how well it drove. There was a sense of control with that car that the American boats never had. This was really important to people driving on crowded roads in bad weather in the Northeastern U.S. We had to borrow a neighbor’s car a couple of times (I think it was a ’77 LeSabre), and I couldn’t believe, even as a kid, how it seemed to wallow all over the road like a cruise ship. It just seemed ridiculous.
The Rabbit was followed by a Dasher, then a Quantum, then a later Rabbit, then a Mark II Golf, then on to a series of Toyotas and Hondas. My parents never bought another American car and I never have either. The VW’s are what I grew up driving (I’ve since moved on to Hyundai), and although the cars have gotten better and better over the years, I have NEVER traded up in size, nor have I wanted to. A lot of us like driving small cars, and it took GM decades to get wise to this.
So fuel economy brought my parents to the imports, but once they got one, they realized that having a small car is really desirable in a lot of ways that the American manufacturers could never understand. They’ve just been starting to get the message in the past few years and are starting to make some really good small cars. But in the meantime, they lost an entire generation of customers, maybe more, never to get them back.
I would add to this that the principal reason Japanese or European manufacturers built small cars was not that they necessarily had any great surplus of vision or moral rectitude, but simply because they also had to, and often with greater constraints than in the U.S. Various non-U.S. cars that Americans considered dinky little subcompacts were a couple of rungs up the ladder at home, so a car that here would be treated as a cheapo loss leader was a middle-of-the-road family car elsewhere. (Dimensionally, Citation was actually edging into luxury car size in Japan and it was about the size of a European Ford Cortina.)
Phrased slightly differently, I’ve been saying the same thing for years. GM brass never drove the POS cars so they had no idea what they were selling, or trying to.
I actually really liked the looks of the citation, especially of the coupe. Out of all of the GM versions, the olds Omega 4 door prob is what I would look for. … Reliability, I did not know it was that bad, maybe why I have seen a few very low mile versions for sale…..buy just for looks, not to use!
Those sales figures are just WOW. And I must admit that I didn’t know that the Celebrity was just a rehashed Citation (Citation II, sorry) until just now. Wasn’t the Beretta/Corsica family built on that same platform as well? I seem to remember that they were basically just reskinned Celebrities, which would effectively make them Citations as well.
Pl8ster,
The Beretta/Corsica were built on the N-body platform, the same one that graced Cavaliers/Cimarrons and their offshoots, like Grand Ams and Cutlass Calais. In other words, if you bought a Corsica you were just buying a rehashed Cavalier.
Beretta & Corsica were NOT J bodies. They were L bodies, their own different branch of development. They were NOT re-hashed Cavaliers…
The N bodies were the BOP cars, Sklyark, Calais/Achieva/Alero and Grand Am. The L’s and N’s were similar in size and even shared some equipment, but different in mission.
J bodies were a whole size class smaller and shared some equipment with the larger cars, but they were unmistakably a different car.
And the L-bodies were complete and utter garbage. If you thought the Citation was indifferently screwed together, take it to the next level with the L-bodies by adding computer controlled fuel injection and cheapo plastics. The X-Bodies were, if anything, built of solid stuff.
I had both a 1981 Citation and a 1988 Beretta GT. Both very attractive cars. The Beretta handled and drove better, but looked 20 years old after 3 years. The Citation, however, aged well.
The Citation had the same type of electronic controls as later EFI cars, but instead of sending pulses to fuel injectors, it sent them to a mixture control solenoid in the carburetor. Perhaps you got a bad one, but in general this system worked much better as a true EFI system than as a feedback carb.
I don’t mean to defend the Beretta in any way, but fuel injection is one of the few things GM did right in the ’80s.
I had no idea either and it’s the kind of thing I would have thought I would notice. The door window frames and windshield are clearly identical. Pretty sneaky, GM.
The Corvair was a nice car for the day, with real performance in the sportier versions. The Vega with an engine swap was cheap and potentially reliable and pleasant transportation. The Citation, what can you do with it to make it right? Especially in California where getting one through a smog check is probably impossible in any case.
I guess the sales numbers tell the story accurately and concisely; I can’t think of another example on this scale.
And all because it was done on the cheap to meet quarterly budgets. That doesn’t happen at Honda, I wager
Well, not back then, at least. Honda, and all the Japanese manufacturers had to prove themselves. Their cars HAD to be better than anything else in the price range, just to get people to look at them (in the beginning). Once the reputation was made, everything was gravy.
Look at Honda and Toyota now. Neither of them are particularly better than the competing GM (or Ford or FCA) model. This is because: a: The Americans had to up their game, and, b: The Japanese have been able to slack theirs, due to that past reputation (which hasn’t worn thin – yet).
In 2014, buying Toyota or Honda on the hood does not automatically guarantee you’re getting a superior product, especially for the premium you’re going to pay for a used model. Which is very different from thirty years ago.
Although the US manufactures have drastically improved, when it comes to long term reliability, durability and component quality, the Japanese cars are still significantly better than the US offerings. This is shown with most auto reliability data sources (Consumer Report, True Delta, etc).
…..therefore the trick is to find the overlooked gem. The car that is from a “lesser” manufacturer and has depreciated horrendously while still offering very good long term reliability. W bodied Pontiac, Olds and Buick may be among them.
We have had literally hundreds of 3100/3400/3800/3900 equipped W-body Impalas/Regals/Grand Prix’s, G-body LeSabres/Olds 88’s cars plus numerous other GM products that say otherwise with many that are still rolling along with 300-400K miles. On the lot right now is a 2004 LeSabre silver with chrome wheels that has an honest to goodness 384k miles that looks nearly as good as new, has little to no interior wear and it drives down the road like it had 60K! The engine is original and the 4T65 Trans axle had one refresh at 220K. We make many good cars that can go the distance. I see it every single day. Maybe there alternators or batteries last a little longer or the radio knobs feel a little tighter but that matter little for how long the car will last or how reliable it will be.
Dash touchscreens often drag ratings down even for otherwise reputable brands, both in ergonomics & reliability. It seems the epidemic of half-baked, feature-bloated, & fragile software has infected the car biz, but maybe consumers mesmerized by the flood of features have forced their hand here.
Japanese cars had rust issues back then, but what impressed owners was ‘hey the motors start and keep starting’, and also less rattley interiors.
For me the ’70s were GM’s best decade. All those personal luxury coupes, The Camaro and Firebird, the best looking Corvette ever made. Yes, the Vega and Monza were losers, but they had style. Everything GM made in the ’70s had style. They did destroy the Monte Carlo and Grand Prix in ’78, but the new Malibu and especially the El Camino were real beauties. I still want a late ’70s El Camino.
The only ’80s GM car I owned was an ’87 Pontiac Fiero, which used the Citation’s FWD setup, including the Iron Duke four, only in the back, and the Chevette steering and suspension in the front. I loved that car, and put nearly 100,000 trouble free miles on it. It was most definitely not a lemon. I wound up trading it for a ’77 Corvette.
I also had an ’88 Suzuki Samurai with one of those $1000 carbs. The carb messed up, the engine was worn out, and I traded it straight across for my ’64 Fairlane. But I got 5 years of nearly trouble free use out of it.
The newest GM boondoggle is the Spark. I almost bought one, but decided to check out some reviews first. Glad I did. ANY new car should make it to 200,000 miles if properly maintained and not abused. I doubt many Sparks will make it past 50,000 miles, making it one of the most expensive American cars out there, even if it was built in Korea. Not only is it a lemon, but GM seems to be ignoring it’s problems and it’s owners.
Can you please provide a reference for this “boondoggle..Spark” claim? I’ve never heard it was a “lemon” with “problems”. Thanks!
I was smitten at first and when Dad was looking for a replacement for some other boring pile of brown and vinyl, and I seriously tried to talk him into an X-11. There must have been a real shortage on demos because the dealer didn’t have one available for him to try, which father wisely insisted upon, and the dealer wouldn’t allow us to ‘borrow’ an undelivered car awaiting its new owner.
I think though that it was a realization by the local Hory manager that anyone who tried one was a non-returner, based on its underwhelming appearance straight out of the box. IMHO natch.
Instead, you highlighted the exact comparo Dad waited for – his first ever product from the land of the Rising Sun was an ’83 Camry sedan, which lasted for years without any real substantive issues other than an AC rebuild and a timing chain which didn’t even bend any valves when it blew out. Much better than my choice which was an ’80 Escort SS wagon. He used to say it stood for stupid son. Thanks, ‘hole.
It took him a long time, several other Yodas and Subes later, before he went back to Dee Trout and got his first of three Caddy’s, which is all he needs as he is moving to the Sunshine State.
Why isn’t your article about the Skylark X-car you had for a while linked?
I thought I remember you saying you actually liked that car.
It’s all part of my devious and carefully crafted conspiracy to make GM look bad. 🙂
Or maybe it was because it was well past my bed time when I got this put together. Sadly, the fairies don’t create my posts for me.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classicauto-biography-1980-1981-buick-skylark-x-marks-the-spot/
A high school buddy’s dad had a new Skylark. It was optioned out and had pretty decent performance as I recall. My buddy abused that car mercilessly, yes it torque steered all over the place. The V6 driveline must have been pretty tough because he did neutral drop burnouts all the time and it never seemed to mind.
Definitely typical GM of the time–good idea, bad execution, tragic cost-cutting. The difference here is the cost-cutting threatened safety (the brake proportioning valve) instead of merely being an annoyance (e.g. the fixed rear windows on the A/G-body sedans.)
They did get the styling mostly right. The nose is a mini-me of the ’78-’81 Malibu, which was a clean and attractive design, and the shape of the hatch is distinctive and recognizable. I always did think it could have benefitted from slightly more length on the tail (the Camry has it and looks better for it IMO) but the problem with the Citation definitely wasn’t the looks…
After my admittedly self-inflicted experience with my 1976 Chevy C-20, I began to hate GM’s offerings, but I only had myself to blame.
I went to AMC for the remainder of the 1970s and then to Chrysler in 1981 for the next 20 or so years. Now I’m back to GM and Chevy and very pleased with my 2 Impalas for the last 10½ years.
When the X-cars came out, it was then I lost faith in GM for a very long time. I perceived them as junk from the get-go, but many American cars were not doing well.
To me, the X-cars looked hastily designed, whether that was the case or not, but they came across as trying to look sophisticated but were really cheap.
True, I bought K-cars; I knew they were rather cheaply executed as well, but the drivetrains were pretty robust and Chrysler had a few more years of experience with FWD than the other of the Big 3. All in all, the K-cars served our family well.
Later on, I guess the X-cars were OK, but the very design turned me off from the beginning.
Can’t argue with what the sales numbers say. I do know not all the X-cars were lemons. Father bought an ’80 Citation (sight unseen) in 1979. Was a 4-door hatch-back (I talked him out of the notch back) with V6 and automatic, two tone silver and grey with a red interior.
In the six or seven years we had that car we replaced a water pump and….well, just the water pump one time. The interior held up very well. When cleaned it up to sell the car the interior looked nearly new. We didn’t even pick-up any visible rust damage on the body – shocking for northern Ohio.
That car is remembered as being a fine car in my family. Had friends that owned the Pontiac and Buick versions of same car and their experiences with them were very similar to ours. The last hold-out did start to see rust eating the floor of the passenger compartment.
I have no recollection of a “wobbly” issue with the front sub frame…and given that I was a teen-age boy at the time dad bought this car, my other option was a Chevette, and it had a V6 – I was “on” that engine a fair amount. Torque-steer I remember (and still have in my Bonneville GXP) but I never felt like the front of the car was leaving the back behind.
Every car has a story….and not all those stories are bad.
Bob,
I have a mirror image story of yours, very similar experience throughout the family with the x-cars, and there were quite a few.
Check your tire pressure on your Bonneville. Are you still running the factory RS-A’s? I have zero torque steer on mine under all normal driving conditions, and even when really pushing it I don’t have torque steer (the real definition) as much as I have the front tires fighting for traction and occasionally pulling back and forth very gently, not the “always pulls to the left” under acceleration kind of torque steer from the old physics right hand rule.
Well, what’s normal driving?
No, what I see in the GXP is so rare and minor as hardly worth mentioning. More the “pulling back and forth very gently” that you describe. I think my Grand Caravan is worse in that regard. I’m sure my perception is aggravated b/c I live on a fairly busy street just over the crown of a hill – so we tend to leave the driveway…briskly. So hard acceleration during and coming off of a sharp turn from driveway to street.
I’ve seen people back out of my driveway, but you couldn’t pay me to try that.
Bob
Your description makes sense now.
My personal experience has been that a few pound difference in tire pressure (lets say around 4 psi) has created toque steer in the most unlikely candidates (my Torque-less Cruze for example). I’ve also found that straying away from the GM TPC SPEC tires has usually also created some toque steer issues. Had one car that went from virtually no torque steer to changing lanes on its own once I put an aftermarket set of tires on it.
I’m sure you’re aware that these GXP’s like to chew up their front engine mount too, which also causes the issue.
Didn’t mean to sound like I was accusing you of making it up, just thought you might have a correctable issue with the car.
That cracks me up torqueless Cruze around these parts a Chevy Cruze is a rebadged Suzuki, imported used ex JDM.
The Holden Cruze is the one from Korea
Bob,
Your dad’s good experience with his Citation echoes that of my Uncle Bob, who bought one brand new in 1980 (to replace a green 1973 Ford Pinto wagon). To this day, my uncle maintains his Citation worked the way it was supposed to, and that he never had any major problems with it. I do remember as a kid thinking about how it seemed to have large-ish rust spots on it after maybe 3-4 years, but they had kids (my cousins) and if their particular Citation had given them major trouble, it would have been on some used car lot before its time.
I had forgotten about the Chevy Citation. I had been told they were junk, but this write up was eye opening as to how bad they were.
And as already mentioned, the sales numbers really say it all.
Wasn’t the the thought process of GM/Ford /Chrysler that you would start out with cheaper models of their product,then as you moved up the economic ladder, you would then buy a Buick/Chrysler/Lincoln?
It would be interesting to know how many Citation owners actually bought GM again.
“It would be interesting to know how many Citation owners actually bought GM again.”
We did, repeatedly.
Citation -> Celebrity -> Grand Am -> Regal GS -> Bonneville SSE -> Bonneville SSE -> Bonneville GXP -> Camaro
Celebrity was okay, functional, reliable, but so very bland.
Regal GS was nice until electrical gremlins set in after 70,000 miles that I was never able to eradicate. After six months of trying and hauling the dead car home to try again I sold it. I saw it soldier on in the neighborhood for five more years after that.
But your question is so very valid. Coming off the Vega and the lessons NOT learned there, to not delay and correct the shortcomings in the X-cars and sour so many people on any GM product ever-after is inexcusable.
I think the recession and the malaise of those times had a lot to do with this.
Well put, Martel. Japan Inc. just wasn’t that bad ass… And look at THEM now.
Maybe Chevy`s first mistake was naming this POS “Citation”-wasn`t there an Edsel with that name?
Good catch. Unfortunately, the name is where the similarity ends. The 1958 Edsel was relatively well-built (in late fifties’ terms, anyway). It’s major failing was polarizing (read: ugly) styling with few in the target demographic. It was a sales bomb right from the get-go.
The Chevy Citation, OTOH, looked okay and was a huge sales success (at least at first). Soon enough those buyers found it to be a poorly engineered (and dangerous), steaming pile o’ crap which sent droves of loyal GM owners looking for a small car right into the arms of the Japanese manufacturers, and they’ve never bought another domestic car since.
No the Edsel’s failing was that it was poorly built. Much like this Citation the pressure was to get it to market as quickly as possible and there are lots of stories of how the dealers essentially had to finish putting them together before they could sell them.
Certainly the styling didn’t help.
The two upper lines of Edsel were Mercurys and the two lower lines were Fords, as well as all station wagons. (Talking about the first two years, or was it just the first? The third was a less than half assed attempt at retrimming a Ford and calling it an Edsel – same entire body.) I’m sure they must have been put together in the same factories as the other cars (?). Anyway other than the pushbutton transmission controls or something I doubt that Edsels had any issues or overall quality that was any different from the other cars.
I remember my uncle got a 1957 Ford and a few weeks later it spontaneously combusted when parked. Either that one or the replacement had door and body paint that didn’t quite match. Look at the body panel and trim alignment on any American car from back then. Precision wasn’t exactly a thing.
The Edsel started off at 63000 sales, comparable with Studebaker and Desoto. Second year dropped to 44000, still comparable to DeSoto. Third year 3000.
My aunt had the Oldsmobile version of this POS, a 1981 Omega as a company car in 1981. Oh boy, what a lemon. She was supposed to have it for 3 years but her employer probably got the message and replaced them with 1984 Buick Regals…. in late 1983. The Regal was a much much better car.
Numerous X-cars died on Interstate 10 that bisects the New Orleans area during the 1980’s.
Drivers of more reliable cars were spotted crossing all three lanes of traffic to avoid even getting close to the steaming, sometimes on fire POS, lest the same problems infect their car.
I’ve witnessed more religious drivers crossing themselves as they passed the immobile X-car.
The Citation _should_ have been another ’55 Chevy but GM cleverly grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory once again .
I’m a Bowtie Guy ’till I die and a general GM apologist in addition but the sharp looking ’81 Citation I bought was a dangerous death trap that was poorly assembled to add further insult .
I look at the photo of the red / black one and think what could have been .
Curse you bean counters ! .
-Nate
Amen, Nate. Preach it. And thankfully they’re finally building small cars people actually seem to want to own.
Plus American car companies were managed top to bottom and wall to wall in ways that were counterproductive in every imaginable way. Management guru Deming had completely original and different ideas, and the Japanese latched on while American execs scoffed and laughed and ordered another double martini. Deming’s ideas fit Japanese culture. Eventually American companies caught on pretty much and got on board. Mostly.
Everything about any company is all about management, and as they say the fish rots from the head. I don’t mean the workers don’t matter – in fact good management is about making them matter.
GM’s record from the 60’s (Corvair) then Toronado, FWD mainstream cars, the Fiero, Saturn and similarly built plastic minivans is one of taking pretty big leaps in concept and design and technology, but usually missing the point and cutting corners and building crap. Many GM cars like the Vega and decades later the Saturn were small cars that were styled like shrunken big cars so they had way less room than they should have – practical small cars that weren’t practical. Ever sit in a first generation Saturn? They are like 3/4 scale cars including the seats. Saturn was known for space frame/plastic body construction, then it was used on the minivans…..and Saturn didn’t get one. You could write a book, and probably someone has.
Started a new job in late 1997 and was surprised to see an ’81 Citation in spotless original condition in the lot. Most of these were long off the road by then. Turns out it was the manager’s car. Garaged daily, washed often and a 5km/day commute. The paint however was not original since it was stripped and repainted under warranty in 1982 after the original paint began peeling off in large sheets. From what I heard customers had to complain loud enough in the showroom to get results.
Numbers don’t tell the whole story. I am sure that more then a few lost sales were due to folks fear of the braking issues but i suspect most of the sales decline starting in 1982 was due to the fact the folks in the market for the Citation were lured away from buying it by the then new Celebrity which had a coupe, sedan and wagon body style. The only way to get a trunk in a Citation was by buying the coupe so if you wanted a 4 door Citation with a trunk instead of a hatch you were screwed. Sedans were(and are) more popular then hatches here in the US of A. The Camry hatchback was not popular at all and more Camry sedans were sold in the 83-86 period then the hatch version and even more telling is that Toyota dropped the hatchback Camry in 1987 and never picked it back up.
I wonder what it might have been like for Citation sales had they offered the Citation in 4 door sedan version and did not offer the Celebrity?
I have never thought of the A-Body FWD cars as GM’s knee jerk response to the sales scare of the Citation. The Celebrity had been conceived in the 1970’s (just like the Citation)
I have driven the X body cars many times over the years and experienced no braking loss issues. I wonder if the braking issue was all a driver error due to an unfamiliar driveline? After all FWD was a new thing at the time and most folks buying this car would be coming from a RWD car. I wonder if it is case of user error(ala Audi 5000)?
After all the US Govt tried to sue GM over the issue and the courts saw no inherent flaw with the car and to NHTSA to peddle thier papers.
Correct, the A bodies were planned at the same time, no car can be ‘whipped up’ in a year. But, they had improvements that should have been put in sooner, not after ‘beta testing’ by owners.
I think it’ was a very fortuitous decision to make the A-Bodies look different, because most folks really didn’t know they were essentially the same car underneath.
If the Citation had been a four door sedan, and there was no Celebrity, it would have been a real sales disaster.
The issue wasn’t a loss of brakes. It was premature lock-up of the rear brakes, if I recall correctly, which could cause the driver to lose control of the car.
Back in the 90″s when I was a member of the Red River Photography club there was a older lady who’s name I have forgotten that had a 1st year Citation. She told me she lost the car when she went to brake at around 45 mph and the rear brakes locked up, throwing the car into the ditch and rolling over. Put her in the hospital for awhile. So it was a real problem.
That gushing Car and Driver article about the new 1981 Citation X-11 (it had more tasteful graphics than the ’80, a hood scoop, and a more powerful 2.8L ‘HO’ V6) had me racing over to the local Chevy dealership, where they had an exact, black replica. I vividly recall that in the C&D article, they mentioned how the shifter kept popping out of gear, but the GM rep assured them it was a pre-production malady that wouldn’t be in any cars sold to the public. When I took the dealer’s X-11 for a test drive, low and behold, the shifter ‘repeatedly’ popped out of gear. I seem to recall it was mostly on the freeway in fourth when lifting off the throttle and the only way to keep it in gear was to forcibly hold the shifter down.
As you might imagine, I didn’t buy the car. I can’t think of a better example of luck in not buying a specific car. It’s also where I learned to never trust an auto magazine review where the car had an issue and the manufacturer rep assured the journos that it was only a pre-production problem.
Great article Paul. I concur wholeheartedly that the 1980 Citation (and the 1980 X-bodies) was the beginning of the end for GM. Without a doubt they were the worst cars that GM ever made in their history.
Sure the Corvair and Vega weren’t great cars, and had there issues. But in the 1960’s and even the majority of the 1970’s, Chevrolet’s bread and butter were full-size cars. So GM could get away with building poor small cars in those eras, because, hey the Impalas and Chevelles were great cars for their time. Once 1980 rolled around, the full-size cars for all makes took a major hit in popularity. So much so, that GM looked at eliminating the B-body platform and replacing it with a FWD platform by 1985.
So right when everyone started to buy small, right when GM needed a great compact car, they introduced the half-baked X-body. Sure on paper it was alright, but it was executed poorly and underdeveloped. This seemed to be the theme for the next 30 years for the majority of its cars. This was the beginning of the end for GM. I have always said that GM builds great large V8 RWD sedans, but when it comes to small FWD platforms forget about it.
I always thought it was ironic that the 1979 X-bodies were such simple proven and reliable vehicles, albeit dated. And the 1980 X-bodies were the complete opposite.
I agree, that GM used to build junky FWD, but the current Cruze and Verano are competitive, but they are way long overdue.
Even Consumer Reports likes the Buick Regal FWD and AWD. Of course they are really Opel Insignias, and soon to be replaced by the next one on the new midsize (for here) platform the Malibu is already on.
I remember a few years ago in college I found a SAE engineering book at the Engineering library full of individual technical papers about the development of the X-cars. It was fascinating to read about all the effort and technology invested in their development. Aerodynamics, structral engineering, NVH, etc… everything was studied and redefined. It could have been a truly great family of cars. Too bad the actual execution of all that turned out to be not that great. It was typical GM of that era: Awesome engineering might, only to throw it all away on quality, concept definition, and penny-pinching. The Pontiac Fiero comes to mind.
Of all the sad words of tongue or pen…………………
The saddest are these-‘it could have been’
Another great classic!
I was a teenager and stil remember Car & Drivers May 79 issue/cover: “GM Blows the Imports into the Weeds”.
In winter of 1980, dad decided it was time to get a new car. The top pick was the Citation–he even test a lower end one (he was looking for low cost) with manual steering and auto. He was OK with it. But even 9 months after introduction, the dealer wanted full sticker on a Citation. We could get a new Malibu for about the same actual price. My dad was not going to pay full sticker.
So after considering Malibu, LeMans, and Chevette, my father decided, as much as he preferred GM, to get a new Ford Fairmont-. So he ordered a 4 cyl, 4spd, for a few hundred less than sticker–and Ford had a $2 or 300 rebate too! (1980 was a recession year, car sales in general were way down). THe Malibu was nicer, but costlier AND it need an auto trans (more expense), since the standard 3 on the tree was nowhere to be found, and probably too crude even for my thrifty dad.
From what I’ve read/hear about the X-cars, I think the Ford turned out to be a good thing for us. It was not an anvil, but it was relatively trouble free over 6 years and 80k.
Other than the ancient 4-cyl motor, the X-car was a state of the art car, but the details were not nailed down, with disastrous results. And as another write pointed out, GM (and domestics in general), tended to short-cut their smaller cars in order to get customers to buy a bigger, “real” car, that cost about the same to manufacture, but could be sold for a lot more. A little bit like pickup trucks today….. Though in fairness to GM, the X-cars were offered with a full complement of options that Americans liked in bigger cars–power steering, A/C, power windows, tilt, cruise, etc. And that’s probably part of the reason the cars had problems–a lot of crap crammed into a small car for a company that had little experience with good small cars. The Japanese started with small cars, gradually made them bigger, and gradually offered power steering and FACTORY a/c. The original Camry probably didn’t even offer power steering (it did however have a 4-speed auto–perhaps the first 4-cy car so equipped).
It even had the distinction of world’s first transverse-mounted, FWD V6.
Did GM really sell 811k Citations–OR was it 811 X-cars that first year?
GM really sold 811K Citations alone, but it was in an extended model year (1980 models went on sale in April 1979). About 279K of this total was sold during the ’79 model year and about 532K during the ’80 model year proper.
I had no idea these doors were used on the A-bodies! We had an ’81 Omega and it was not a pleasant experience. Constantly in the shop and I remember it having extremely uncomfortable seats. We only took it on one trip and vowed to never do it again.
Even if it had been a colossal success, Citation was a stupid name. Can you imagine being in a business in which you were issued a vehicle as part of your job?
“Hey Bob, I heard you up for a new vehicle, what did they give you?”
“A Citation.”
“Damn it Bob, I’m not asking about your traffic tickets, I want to know about the car!”
Citation was a very famous Triple-Crown winning horse. Even though that accomplishment was achieved in the late ’40s, Citation was still very popular with the public in 1980. I remember my sister having two replicas of the horse, and her friends collected them too.
As was mentioned above, the name Citation had appeared on a famous auto make previously … the Edsel. Edsels came in four levels of trim (and increasing price): the Ranger, the Pacer, the Corsair, and the top-of-the-line Citation.
The Ranger was used again on a small Ford truck, the Pacer name was picked up by AMC for its own controversial small car, and Citation fell into GM’s lap. No one has used Corsair as a car name since the 50s, although Corvair did come close.
Ford used Corsair in the UK in the 60s
UK Ford Corsair and Ford Australia rebadged a four cylinder Nissan as a Corsair.
For my first and only new car purchase, I worried over which x-car to buy for months. I had all the catalogs dog-eared by the time I settled on a two-door Phoenix. It was still possible to order a car the way you wanted it optioned and have it built for you in those days. I waited seven months for the 1980 coupe to be built within 5 miles of my house, at the Tarrytown, NY plant (razed later in the century). The cars were selling well, but some of the wait was for the manual transmission/4 cyl. setup I specified. When the car came, the popping out of gear followed soon afterward. There were other problems over the 11 years I owned it (always with a funky older car that shared usage), but the transmission never got right. The Iron Duke wasn’t up to my relatively long oil change intervals and got changed out for a used mill at around 100K miles. I Euro-ed the white coupe with black accents; it still looked pretty sharp when I sold it on the street for $400 in 1991 with just 115K miles. I still remember telling the lady to hold the shift lever in gear for a bit until it “took” when she drove it home. I remember the car as being a lemon, which was a shame considering what a great package it was. I still managed to hold affection for it. Less torque steer than with a V-6, but still noticeable, and there was a discernible speedboating effect, especially if the rear tires got low on air.
Meanwhile, my Dad inherited a 6-cyl. Citation 4-door from another employee. We left Salt Lake City on a Sunday for a Christmas meeting with family in LA. Mom had a great view of the Mt. St. Helens eruption from her plane window as she took off from SeaTac to meet us. We got just past Great Salt Lake when the car broke down, and got towed to the nearest town where we had to stay over night in a Motel 6; no one was available to fix it on a Sunday because of the Mormon influence in the area. The problem was merely a clogged fuel filter in the carburetor, but we had expected worse, given my experience with the Pontiac, so we didn’t effect the repair ourselves.
In the Northeast, you never see an X-car these days.
Not very many left in the Southeast either.
In despite of the Citation’s unreliability, X-body program constitutes an astonishing tour de force for a company which used to design and build great RWD cars. Except for the useless Toronado’s experiment, gm’s engineers and designers began with a clean sheet: the fwd technology is right for this time. it enabled a better package, with the design’s point of view, Chevy’s designers had done a good and clean job. About its reliability and quality, all gm’s products were poorly executed at this time and the Citation was safer than the Malibu whose the fuel tank wasn’t correctly protected against rear crashes. I have read a post on http://www.autosofinterest.com about Chevy citation’s design with the chevy designer Dick Ruzzin’s testimony. I think that it’s an interesting article to read before to judge these car. Although, GM should have improved its quality in the same time. The chevy citation was a lost opportunity to reform the Gm’s structure.
I’m restoring an 1982 X-11 right now. Working on it is a nightmare compared to my E-46 BMW. As I have been working on the Citation, you have to marvel at the amount of engineering might that went into the car but also how GM’s priorities were engineering it to be built quickly with no regard for ease of replacing wear components. The BMW by contrast was built with maintenance in mind. It wasn’t that GM didn’t have the engineering talent, they simply chose not to do so, which is the root of GM’s downfall.
And WHAT were they thinking of with the vertical mounted radios in the Citation dashboard???
Uh, nobody in the aftermarket made a radio like that? So if you wanted higher end audio, you had to order it thru GM?
I seem to recall the mail order specialty shop “Crutchfield” had one or two replacements; but nothing in local automotive specialty shops.
The radios that were available often lacked the features available on other radios.
Shortly after they were introduced many of the larger aftermarket companies started offering a vertical version or two for the X cars. Overall there were relatively few choices though.
They were probably quite unaware that 1948-1950 Packard radios were arranged that way.
American Motors used vertical radios on 1967-73 Ambassadors and Rebel/Matadors.
1946 thru 48 Chrysler corporation, also.
The one in dad’s 48 DeSoto was a great sounding unit!
They were aware of the early model GMC Astro 95 COE tractors, which used a vertically oriented standard size Delco radio. The later ones had the radio relocated to a ceiling mounted housing that could accommodate any Delco radio. The last ones in the late ’80s had the full range of Delco DIN 1.5 units available in GM passenger cars.
It’s unforgivable that General Motors would make so many mistakes at once as a company. I thought their worst mistakes were the Vega and Vega based cars, and the Citation. They were good looking cars, but so poorly built that they should not have been released to the public. It’s no wonder Detroit is dead. General Motors and other car makers were the reason Detroit was what it was. When General Motors started shutting down its factories, all the businesses that relied on General Motors closed up shop as well. It’s sort of a domino effect. It’s an unforgivable sin that General Motors doesn’t seem to learn and to repair. It’s as if they don’t give a damn about itself or its workers.
The Vega drove well, very well in fact. They were a really good low-buck alternative in SCCA B-sedan autocross. Unfortunately, the engine sucked and it rusted.
The Monza (Skylark, etc.) were solid cars who’s performance couldn’t quite cash the checks that the styling wrote. Handled well, fair engines.
As to the blog favorite of “I wonder how many people still bought GM after the Citation” I would venture that the answer would be “quite a few, most likely the majority of them”. Remember the Citation came out in ’79, crashed and burned in ’85, GM didn’t go bankrupt until ’09. That’s a lot of years that an ever decreasing number of car buyers still stayed loyal to GM, for lots of reasons.
For starters, back in those years GM dealers were dealing, having rebates, etc. Japanese car dealers were putting Additional Dealer Margin stickers on their cars, holding out for full price, and lowballing trades – because they could. And I’m certainly not alone in holding the attitude that, no matter how much I want a certain make and model of car, seeing the ADM sticker on the window immediately removes it from consideration. I wouldn’t start from over sticker on a Ferrari, much less any lesser make. I never owned a Japanese car in the 70’s or 80’s because I wouldn’t allow myself to be raped by the dealers at the time.
The oversimplification that Citation ownership = permanently lost GM customer is as oversimplified as saying the Great Depression suddenly happened in October 1929.
(It didn’t. The market picked back up days later, then slowly went on a death slide over the next two and a half years. It was 1932 before the US was firmly in the grip of the Depression and in serious trouble.)
I was all of 16 when the X-cars were introduced, and for some reason I had a bad feeling from them. Maybe it was all the hype, maybe it was due to my dad’s gawdawful experience with his ’74 Vega GT, I don’t know. I just KNEW these were going to be a mess. Later on a couple of friends bought Citations and it seemed that both of them had it out for me. Had the hoods blow open on BOTH those steaming piles while I was driving them… they must have felt my hatred for them 😀 .
I wonder how many of the sales numbers were govt fleet numbers? Citations were plentiful in the military ranks where I lived as we had an Army National Guard base down the road and an Air Force Base across town.
I was only 7 yrs old when the Citation debuted. Too young to drive at the time, I didn’t like it then, and I still don’t like it. I remember reading horror stories in the Seattle Times about Citation, Skylark, Omega, and Pontiac owners having everything from electrical problems to brakes locking prematurely, etc. Why General Motors didn’t fix the problem while it was still in the production phase is beyond me. It’s just unforgivable. 🙁
Even on the A-bodies the rear brake lock up was an issue. Family owned a 1982 Celebrity which the A-bodies were heavily based on the RD done during the X-car program.
Mom was driving to work one morning and the roads were hard packed snow and ice covered, it was too cold for the salt to do its work. Near the Ottawa, OH water treatment plant she stomped the brakes to avoid hitting someone and the car did a 180 degree spin coming to rest just off the road facing the opposite direction she had been traveling in. The car was fine but it scared the holy hell out of her.
My grandmother owned a 1985 example, a V6 coupe with a front plate (she was living in Indiana at the time) that said “Foxy Grandma”. She had a similar incident during another snowstorm. Although her story was always embellished with “I prayed, Lord I’m ready to meet my Waterloo…”
Those fleet cars were probably mostly after 1980. I doubt GM was eager to sell too many to fleets in the first year, as they couldn’t make enough to meet the demand from private buyers.
If you like, you can check out these scans from the 1980 catalogue which was issued on the occasion of the IAA Frankfurt (Internationale Automobil Ausstellung) which I visited with my dad and brother.
Dad purchased me this little booklet and I kept it ever since.
The scans show GM´s X-body models and the EU pricing in Deutsch Marks for the model year 1980.
some of GM´s offerings for Europe in 1980
and the prices for GM´s 1980 european line up
and the Skylark´s pricing..
FYI: in 1980 the dollar exchange rate would grant you 2 DM for 1 $
I find it interesting that General Motors would price its North American vehicles so low for German market.
The North American vehicles were fully built in US FMVSS version at the factories before being shipped to the third-party conversion firm in Ohio. There, those vehicles were stripped down to be fitted with ECE components, namely headlamps, taillamps with amber turn signal indicators, external rear view flagpole-style mirrors, different seat belt systems, red hazard lamp switches, and so on.
I cannot imagine adding so much cost for the modification work and for the ECE-certified parts.
Well, I gues GM had pretty high hopes for those X Body cars to finally break the European market, as for the first time they had cars that met the European´s expectations regarding size and economy. They probably thought that they would still have to push the cars into the market with highly competitive pricing.
But low prices were not enough because road test showed that regardless of size the cars V6 engines were still gas guzzlers by European standards. The V8 powered Caprice Classics, Camaros and Blazers appealed to a totally different demographic that was basically nuts about US cars and didn’t care too much about current gasoline prices.
How was this car, size-wise ? We’re talking 1980, was it somewhere inbetween the Opel Ascona B and this Opel Rekord E ?
I’d say that GM’s Opel already covered all segments on Continental Europe back then. From a basic and spartan Kadett to a luxurious Senator, including straight six engines.
Johannes, I would say that the Opel Rekord E1 (1977 – 1982) as shown on your image was slightly larger than a Buick Skylark for instance.
It would also appeal to a different demographic…kind of no-nonsense people that would never indulge in too many pricey luxury options. You would probably only find a handful of Rekords with power windows and AC. You must realize that back at the time there was this phrase “Was nicht drin ist kann auch nicht kaputt gehen” ;-)…meaning: if there’s no trim, there’s nothing to break. That was for the most part the prevalent mindset of German car buyers.
Those X Bodies sold in Europe would have meant additional sales, and I can imagine that the US GM management would have been very happy about being able to advertise the X Bodies in the US as cars, that are good enough to even succeed with discerning European car buyers.
Monzaman, we’ve got a saying for that: “Just act normal, that’s crazy enough”. That’s why Opel was the best selling car brand for a very long time in a row.The Opel Kadett was the ultimate car for Average Joe (Otto Normalverbraucher).
yeah, I know….its mind boggling when you remind yourself that by 1973 or so Opel had a market share of around 20 % in Germany.
Now its down to something around 7 %.
Monzaman: “Was nicht drin ist kann auch nicht kaputt gehen”… That sounds EXACTLY like something my father would say… Hahahahahahahaha!
how would the phrase go in English?
“What’s not there can’t break” or something like that. Very much old-school German thinking.
Genau! 🙂
very much old-school thinking but oh so right!
try finding a 70s/80s Mercedes with one of those gigantic sunroofs that doesnt leak.
Like most German vehicles , Mercedes’ sun roofs have excellent water drains that no one ever bothers to blow the dust out of so of course they leak , usually dribbling cold dirty water down the back of your neck when you make a quick stop .
-Nate
Well, as said before, I owned a 1980 Skylark 2,8 Limited as a daily driver for some years. Drove 40 miles a day, and it worked perfectly, I have to said, and when I got the car, it was already 30years old, and had been in salty Norwegian roads since 1980. Original engine and drivetrain. Some bodyrust, but not any bad. Interior looked almost as new, blue, with benchseat and center armrest. Gave good gas mileage, was actually pretty quiert and drove well, as I can remember. The reliability was excellent. Maybe I was in a luck, but I drove it every day for over a year, and it had already passed 200.000 miles. I sold the car to some who still use this car today, but the light blue color has been changed to black.
The Varajet carburetor specific to the 2.5 up until 1981 and the 2.8 up to 1985 wasn’t all that bad once you learned them. If anything the carbs Honda and Nissan were using during this time period were far worse and next to impossible to find parts for or rebuild. They also had 500 vacuum lines a piece and trying to get one running right after these lines disintegrated was quite the challenge. I will give GM a little credit for giving the Iron Duke throttle body injection in 1982 and it seems from what I remember the Citation II cars from 1983-1985 were better than the 80 and 81’s. Still the damage was already done by this point and disappearing sales cemented that fact. The A-body cars such as the Celebrity and Ciera were much better cars even with there well known steering rack and early THM 440 trans axle issues. We still have them for sale on our used car lot from time to time some with over 300K on the clock!
No corporation worth its salt would release a car without first making sure the “bugs” were worked out. Sadly, General Motors wasn’t at the time, and still aren’t worth the ground they stand on.
So what your saying is that no other car company but GM has put out poorly executed crap cars right? What rock have you been hiding under?
Oh, I know there are plenty of other idiot car companies that release lemons for us car buyers. I’m just saying that General Motors was the worst of the worst.
Actually, overall, they weren’t. Only the Japanese seemed to be capable of turning out perfect rust buckets, er, cars at that time. Being GM, being the biggest, being the (supposedly) Perfect Automobile Company, when they bombed they tended to get hammered a lot worse than any smaller company.
And once you are in an auto blog, “hammering GM” is a quick way of showing ones chops and expertise.
Off the top of my head case in point: The 1980 X-body was a bad car. Agreed. Rank it against the all-time-bad-assembly American automobile, the 1957 Chrysler Forward Look cars. Cars that were so badly built that they almost bankrupted the company and killed its previously near-pristine reputation as a quality auto manufacturer. All in the course of one model year.
Yet today, we look fondly at those ’57’s Chrysler products while quietly mentioning their quality control problems. Yet the ’80 X-body is the deadliest sin of all deadliest sins. Either we’ve always expected a lot more from GM (up until they started to lose it) and are determined to forever punish them for their fall from grace, or a lot of people on-line just love to slag GM.
Syke: It’s not exactly the best analogy. The ’57 Chryslers suffered from poor assembly quality, due to the rush to production. That mostly led to water and dust intrusion, and some of those issues were fixable after the fact.
The Citation’s problems were worse than that: GM skimped on material quality, they used a rough and crude engine, there were issues with the brake system design, etc.
A ’57 Chrysler that had its bugs fixed was/is a desirable car because it had other intrinsic qualities, such as its bold design and excellent powertrains.
I doubt anyone (except perhaps hipsters) is going to find an Iron Duke Citation very desirable, even the later ones that had most of their bugs resolved.
Keep in mind that Chrysler’s assembly issues were resolved quite quickly; it took several years for the X Cars and even the early A Cars to get a solid rep. It was more than just an assembly quality issue.
In fact, I don’t know that actual assembly quality was even such a big issue on the X Cars. It was more on the decisions on materials as well as a lack of engineering development on many of the systems and parts. Shifters that popped out of gear,rough plastic edges that cut fingers and trim and parts that fell off are not assembly-specific issues. They’re engineering and cost-control issues.
I agree. It’s unforgivable that GM would do that. Granted, no one likes to spend more money than we can afford, but being that a car is one of the biggest investments that we make, next to a house, you want the car to be put together with the best quality parts, enough to justify the money you put down. And if we pay between $5,000 and $10,000 on a car and within a short time of buying and registering the car, it starts falling apart on you, in un-safe ways, then it’s hardly worth your money, is it?
Paul,
I think the 57 Chrysler analogy is a good one. Until the 57-58 Chrysler products arrived, Chrysler had a reputation of having the some of the best built cars in the world. Chrysler played up this in ads of the time. Once those 57-58 cars arrived and folks were discovering that their new cars were rusting out quickly(even in the desert) there was a uproar. Chrysler did fix the issues but their reputation took a beating that forever destroyed the best built reputation they once had.
Thanks Syke for the reminder that not all of the Japanese cars of the period were Deus Ex Machina. I’ve related here before my experiences from that time frame, with my far less than stellar Mercury Capri RS Turbo and my then girlfriend’s 78 Honda Accord: The car that at two years of age had huge rust holes through the front fenders, a sagging interior, a nightmare emissions carb and other issues. But, my Mercury was even worse…
There really is no excuse for the way these cars were foisted on the public and I think it was especially heart breaking for folks who spent their money on a product they thought would be as good as they could find. But, these big companies are run by people who need to make a profit, and profit won out over customer desires. GM has been paying the price for it ever since.
There were few really good alternatives back then. Many Japanese car companies were just getting sales outlets established in areas other than the coasts of the US. VW was probably the standard “foreign” car that most folks had any familiarity with, at least for the interior of the country.
There were few safe bets. It was a far different world than today. No internet to compare reliability notes, or get user reviews. The buff magazines didn’t cover that kind of info unless it was a disaster of epic proportions. And even then, it was just “mentioned”.
Consumer Reports may report on some issues, but by the time it would be widely disseminated, it could take a year or two. By then you’d be 18 coupons into the payment book and find yourself looking at $1000 head gasket job. Ask me how I know…
The ’57 Chrysler products have total historic awesomeness on their side.
And Buicks have been rated pretty high for reliability by everyone in the past few years.
GMH fitted Rochester Varijet carbs to 6 cylinder Holdens and they work fine until the internal passages warp from heat then your screwed, as they cant be effectively rebuilt, I went to a Holley but single figure fuel mileage doesnt work with Aussie gas prices though the increased performance was ok,so I found a wrecking yard kit for a single barrel Stromberg and fitted that and the car ran great and had expected economy again.
Yeah the carbs for the CVCC Hondas were more expensive. The worst by far were the Minuki Nighmare, as it was known, that was used on Mitsubishis and early Hyundais. But Paul got totally ripped off on repairs to his varajet so it is the worst carb ever.
The rear door windows of the X-cars (and their descendants) actually rolled down, unlike those of the rear-drive intermediates – Malibu, Cutlass, etc. – on display in the same showrooms. If they’d given the X-cars fixed windows as well, and spent the money on the non-visible stuff instead, would that have made a difference?
Perhaps roll down rear windows were an advantage in milder climates?
It would seem to me that Factory Air Conditioning negated rear roll down windows??
Fixed rear windows was just an industry plot against Zackman. Nothing more.
I think the fixed glass enabled more elbow room to be scooped out of the doors.
never spent much time thinking about it, but wouldnt this be also a safety issue? in case of an accident? when rear passengers couldnt leave the car because the doors were jammed?
The 80 Citation had a transverse mounted V6 before the Camry did. Several years before the Camry.
I had an 84 Citation II notchback. These were discontinued in 82, then brought back in 84, IIRC. Champagne and dark brown two tone, mag wheels, velour interior. It was available when my 63 Valiant Signet’s 3 speed shift linkage crapped out [again]. I paid $1600 for it in 1992.
My Dad had gotten an 84 Cutlass Ciera via my car dealer Uncle and I was impressed with it’s quiet, ride and efficient use of space. I wanted something similar. Read everything I could about the Citation, knew it’s dubious history and still bought it. It’s notoriety appealed to me. It’s a sickness. I tend to lean toward the automotive efforts that the mob finds loathsome and have troubled histories.
At any rate, I loved this car. From it’s crude 50’s tech engine to it’s perfect size, ride and interior room.
It had the very common [to GM FWD THM 3 speed automatics] torque converter switch problem that would send the car lurching at a stop sign similar to a manual being left in gear, which my mechanic insisted was a bad transmission. $1200 for an unnecessary trans swap. I only found out later about the TC switch producing the problem. Live and learn.
I loved that car, but two years later traded it for a 21,000 mile 86 Olds Calais 2 door. Same powertrain as the Citation [the Iron Duke was now the [yester] Tech 4]. I guess I was still chasing my Father’s Oldsmobile. It ate brakes every 20,000 miles, went through three alternators, an AC system and had the same TC switch problem the Citation did in the 30,000 miles I put on it. Every time it went in, it was a $300 bill. In 90s money.
That was given to my parents [I’d replaced everything that would cause problems by that time, had the headliner redone and the car repainted] when I bought my 99 Cavalier.
The only problems I encountered on it were it’s desire to eat brakes every 20,000 miles, a hose recall and the intermediate steering shaft problem that seems to plague GM even today[fixed under warranty]. Rear ended and totaled in 2004.
Reliable and as close to a direct replacement for my Citation as I could find, minus a small amount of rear seat shoulder and leg room. My very first new car, the result of my affection for the sorry and abused Citation I had owned for two years.
Replaced by an 05 ION 1. Ignition problems [five of em, including the one replaced under the recall], two transmission shift mechanisms [cause the key {including the new one} to stick in the ignition [and a third on the way via an extended warranty after GM recently “discovered” 44 complaints to NHTSA.
I’ve had to diddle a button under the steering column for years to get the key out. And so have many others. Sway bar bushings replaced at 36,000 miles and the button to open the trunk just fell into the dashboard. Again.
Oh, and there’s still the power steering recall to do.
However, at 60,000 miles I only just replaced the rear brakes and the fronts still have 60% of their life left. The battery lasted eight and a half years and with the polymer panels it’s weirdness will look like new for years to come.
The engines and transmissions in these [minus the CVT and early 03/04 2.2s] have proven long lived as well. But the trim and workmanship on it are inferior to my Olds Calais [which my brother now owns], Cavalier and even the Citation.
Considering replacing it as it’s getting harder to enter and exit [it seems to be getting lower to the ground the older I get. It was fine 10 years ago] with a Sonic 5 door, but from what I’ve been reading…. there’s no way I’m going to nurse another GM product down the road for 10 years.
Plus: no temperature gauge [in 2015 ?], a timing belt with an interference engine, a hokey 80s style digital dash, lots of electronic sophistication with GM’s execution [see description of the ION above], 5% [last I looked] domestic content, GM/Korea/Daewoo sourced parts and built in the US. What could possibly go wrong?
The Ciera and Citation sparked my love affair with GM. My ION ended it [though I still love the schizoid thing].
Even now, while I still have the Valiant, I wish I had that Citation II as well.
The Sonic is actually 75% domestic content.
Many engines with a timing belt are interference engines from many manufacturers http://www.agcoauto.com/content/list_of_interference_engines
Many cars today also don’t have temp gauges, some Subarus, Honda Civic and Fit, Mazda 3…
Philhawk: I’m getting that % # from the actual window sticker of the early Sonics I saw. It may have changed by now. According to NHTSA it’s 50%. Not even close to 75.
And cars being built without temp gauges is still a bad idea, just like it was in the 50s when such things were called “idiot lights”. Just as timing belts and interference engines, frameless and fixed rear door glass are bad ideas. Because other manufacturers do it doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.
My 01 Sentra has a temp gauge. However, I noted that the temp needle doesn’t rise even ascending long, steep grades and doesn’t drop when descending like grades. Is this an ‘idiot gauge’, not reflective of the actual coolant temp? What manufacturers/cars still have real gauges? I’d like a real gauge plus a bright red light (while i’m dreaming, why not a cancellable chime) in case I don’t see it rising to ‘H’.
Camry (& Accord) were indeed late to the V6 party, but it hardly mattered because their inline fours weren’t unrefined penalty engines like Detroit’s.
I have never been a fan of these although I have known folks who had them and liked them. Probably my initial dislike came with the first one I saw which was a red stripper coupe. I had ordered a new Malibu coupe, which I still own, and took delivery in early March of 1979. I was back in the dealership a couple of weeks later and the owner took me to look at the Citation. He also told me that it was what he thought GM was going to replace my brand new car with. That didn’t go over too well with me.
Well, the Malibu is still running and I rarely see a Citation.
The article evidently explains why I was able to have as much fun as I did with the torque steer of my wife’s ’97 V6 Grand Am.
For me. it’s hard to imagine that the Citation was worse than the Vega. Essentially, this would mean that they would have had to have been pushed off the end of the assembly line, going by how awful my ex-wife’s Vega was. Remember, too, that the Vega was introduced when there was a prolonged strike in 1970, and the build quality was atrocious. The Vega’s sales trajectory differed from the Citation’s only because the 2 car’s sales were buoyed by gasoline shortages at different times in each car’s design cycle.
The Vega was a deeply flawed car in so many ways. In terms of Deadly Sin magnitude, the only reason the Citation was a larger failure than the Vega was that the latter was aimed right at the heart of the auto market, and so it’s failure was more profound than that of the Vega.
The higher sticker prices and interest rates of 1980’s made people more risk averse. When a Vega died, it was a ‘cheap disposable’ car, but the X car was supposed to be “the future American Car”.
I’ve been wanting to write your first sentence here all day. I’ll never forget a week-end trip in my friend’s new Vega. Has to be one of the worst cars of all time. Parts were literally coming off the car on the road. We were driving in rain when one of the wipers came apart and became dysfunctional and the other was only half working by the time we got home. The carpet was loose and coming up in front and back. The engine was missing, the radio barely functional. This was a brand new car, nicely equipped with automatic, A/C, etc. The car was traded in less than a year. The X-cars were bad, no question, and I heard plenty of horror stories from friends and co-workers about them. But the Vega was truly terrible.
Bob Lutz recently made the excuse that ‘we were experts in RWD and had to switch right away’ as if to rationalize it all. But as stated in article “…Toyota was dealing with the exact same challenge: to convert its RWD Carina/Corona lines to fwd”.
The Citation made the Ford Escort look like a bank vault in comparing quality. IMHO.
The only thing GM can claim is how the A-Body derivative was an improvement and lasted until 1996, but it appealed to old timers, and didn’t get needed younger buyers from buying imports.
I was 14 and a big reader of Car and Driver, when our silver Citation came home. I remember opening the ashtray “door” and almost cutting myself on the unfinished hard plastic surrounding the ashtray. I remember thinking how disgraceful that was, that no one on the assembly line thought of checking the finish quality of the semi-hidden plastic surround. Even at 14, it was obvious Amrica had seriours manufacturing issues.
My father had one, a 4 cylinder car. He never bought another US-made car after that. My lasting memory of that thing was how dead it felt, dead steering, dead engine, uninspired gearbox. That car was one of the reasons why US-made cars lost it out to the Europeans on the Israeli market. Up until the 70s American cars actually had the upper segment of the market for themselves on account of their reliability more than anything. Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs were bought by dental surgeons with German background who could afford the expensive servicing and parts; people relying on their cars for work bought Mopars, GM products, Fords and Israeli-assembled Studebakers. Then the 70s came and build quality collapsed… To me this was the greatest sin of all – I truly believe that, were the Citation as reliable as, say, the mid-60s Nova (or any of the Japanese competition at the time), it would have sold well, inspired or not. And when – in Israel – the Japanese started offering cars just as luxurious as the American cars but far more reliable, buyers switched (my father – after experimenting with Peugeot’s 505 and 405 – became a Toyota Avensis adherent).
I still see Citations running around here in the Puget Sound area of the NW. I also have mixed feelings when I do, from “Wholly Crap!, someone’s still driving one of those!” to “Wholly Crap!, someone’s still driving one of those!”. While they may say the same words, one is of shock and the other of amazement.
What could have been one of the biggest hits for GM, had they put more focus and effort into it ended up a bomb. Did GM learn from it’s repeated history lesson this time? I’m not sure myself. I have had several Chevy Celebrity cars and loved them. Whatever mistakes they made in the Citation did not seem to be present in any of the Celebrity cars I had owned.
My uncle had one of these, and got nearly 200K out of it. Obviously that’s the exception, not the rule.
OTOH, one of the asst mgrs. at my first job also had one. A wretched POS that ran usually on 3-4 cylinders (2.8 V6) if at all.
The X-11 was kind of a neat car and very well COULD have established an enthusiast following for domestic fwd performance cars. However, with turbos everywhere, Chrysler carved out a lasting niche that still carries a fair amount of street cred today, if only they could consistently keep a presence…AND not go about it halfassed. Im looking at you, Neon SRT-4.
After the very attractive ’77 B-bodies, the clean ’78 A-bodies, and the original ’79 E-bodies, I though GM was back in a styling and design leadership role. Unfortunately, I always found the X-cars too generic looking, and downright homely in the case of the five door Citation. When I realized that many of the blasé pre-production spy photos were close to the finished design, I was disappointed to say the least. Styling-wise, I found the Citation 3 door hatch made the ’75 Monza look like a Corvette. And the two door notchback looked like an oversized toy car, deliberately styled to look anonymous. Like GM was now dictating that the future was boring looking cars, and I didn’t like what I was seeing. IMO, even the Escort/Lynx had a freshness the X-cars lacked. Both in their packaging/style, but also their marketing. And though the K-cars were very conservatively styled, and nearly as bland, it was hard not to cheer for Chrysler’s comeback and underdog status.
Two family members owned X-cars at the time. One a five door Citation and the other a Phoenix LJ five door. I found the better equipped Phoenix a nicer car. But they both seemed cheaply made. Almost like GM was telling buyers, “This is the future, so you better get used to it.”
Even before it was released, and after being heavily promoted in the media, I never desired to own one of these as a young man. I found the styling cynically boring to my youthful eyes. Even though they clearly were very practical cars. The ones I saw and were exposed to, seemed cheap and without enough character to be desirable.
I agree that the 1977-79 B, C, A/G, and E bodies were GM’s hits, but the X was a body blow.
B eginning
A scent
E xcellence
X death
When these came out, I too had fallen for the pre release hoopla, and headed to a Chevy dealer to try one out. OMG, the thing struck me as a cheaply made, underpowered slug. I remember thinking “if this is the new GM, they’re in trouble”
Paul, the link to the Car and Driver story needs to be edited, too many http there
Sorry; fixed now.
I never owned any of the GM “X” bodies , but I did purchase 3 GM vehicles during this period. All Three were a disappointment. By the third GM’r I had learned my lesson and never went back. The 80’s at GM was Roger Smith who…..was a clueless buffoon surrounded by similar clueless buffoons. (Edited by the comment moderator)
PLEASE no politics
However apt the words may be…….
“What were they thinking?”
GM brass in 1979 probably expected Chrysler to die, and the imports would not build ‘transplant’ factories, expecting 45% + share “forever”. But also expecting small car owners to ‘move up’ to their bigger cars.
Also, there were too many workers at GM in those days who just saw it as a ‘paycheck’ and just did minimum to ‘cover themselves’. And the attitude of “where will buyers go, Ford? HAHA”.
With most old cars I feel a sense of nostalgia and appreciation for them. Even if they weren’t highly regarded at the time. At the very least, I will reliably feel some empathy or connection to them. I can’t feel anything for the X-cars. I’ve seen tons of them up close. Rode in a variety of them. And drove a couple. Of course the front wheel drive and packaging were groundbreaking for GM, but beyond this approach to their design, I feel virtually no sentiment towards these cars. And I’ve tried!
As much as people are critical of appliance cars today, at least they are durable and reliable. And we should be so grateful for that. Given how much was riding on this car, I am amazed how half baked it was. Plus for me, they exude so much sterility in car form.
Come on you guys…admit it…the concept WAS kinda smart….
I agree about the concept, not the execution, unfortunately. It could have been a hit–the sales numbers showed it sure was until people realized they weren’t going to get the same kind of thing that people had been raving about with the B/C, A, and E bodies.
Now, visualize that the car had been developed, fine tuned and built by Toyota in 1979-80. And the sales (and reputation) would have been . . . . . . . ?
Toyota did just that. But it was in 1983. Toyota is a pretty conservative company, they don’t go out on a limb, ever. It wasn’t until it was pretty clear that FWD cars were going mainstream before Toyota started cranking them out.
Even if they would have had the balls to release it in 1979, the Honda Accord was sucking up all of the “wunder car” notoriety at that time. The Accord had a three year head start in that regard and I’m not entirely sure that the Camry would have been able to catch up. Better it was released several years later, when they knew for sure that FWD cars were going to be accepted.
The all-new FWD Tercel came out in 1979, and developed a reputation for being mechanically bulletproof and very long-lived.
Don’t you think the Tercel was more like a direct competitor for a subcompact like the Civic than a compact or mid-sized car?
Of course. I was just confirming that Toyota started switching to FWD in the mass market cars before GM did, and did it without and problems.
Not to split hairs, but I think the US market debut was model year 1980. I don’t remember specifically, but that probably was fall of 1979. But, point taken about the reliability aspect.
My brother’s wife had a 1979 Tercel, which was exactly what you described. Nothing could stop Tercel at all.
Although in some respects, Toyota approached FWD not unlike GM did in this period — hesitantly, reluctantly, and gradually — and for about the same reasons (concerns about buyer acceptance and retooling costs). Also, like the UPP cars, the L10 Tercel was quite a bit different in mechanical layout from Toyota’s subsequent transverse-engine/FWD cars.
(To geozinger’s point, the Tercel was introduced in Japan in August 1978 as a 1979 model, so Paul is correct.)
The point remains, of course, that Toyota managed to make the transition without embarrassing itself in the process.
Even if it had just been fine-tuned by GM it probably would have been good. The bad GM compacts I’ve ridden in from this era suffer not from bad design or lack of utility but from the lack of “fine-tuning” at the end: be that the engine, the workmanship on interior parts, etc. They half-arsed things they could have afforded to get right and still turned a huge profit.
I remember being excited by the X-cars when they debuted in the spring of 1979. They debuted just as we heard about fuel shortages in California, which would spread to the rest of the country by the summer of 1979. That really heightened interest in these cars, and made it look as though GM was ahead of the game.
The principal of our high school had the first X-car in town. He traded his 1975 Chevrolet Estate Wagon for a Citation five-door hatchback.
The Oldsmobile version was the one that caught my attention, as we were an Oldsmobile family. Oldsmobile tried to turn it into a miniature Delta 88. I remember hoping that my parents would trade their huge 1976 Delta 88 Royale Holiday sedan for an Omega Brougham. My father, however, saw no reason to trade a perfectly good car with less than 50,000 miles on the odometer, regardless of whether there was a fuel shortage. In retrospect, it was a good thing that my father wasn’t one to trade his cars very often!
right?
Absolutely – that’s the real shame of the Citation. It really was a great car… in brochures and magazine tests anyway. I know the styling isn’t remembered all that fondly now, but I’m a big fan. To me it looks like both a proper Chevy and a thoroughly modern (in 1980) car all at once; not just a rip-off of a European design or a shrunken head version of a Malibu/Nova. If only GM had continued going down that path… instead they got super conservative with all of their styling as a direct result of the Citation fallout. Some people loved that their cars continued carrying styling elements of the ’70s through the next couple decades, but of course with each and every following year less and less of those people existed.
I never would have guessed that GM sold them in Europe, or most of those cars listed above… wow. Did they have an actual dealership network in Germany at the time or were they only like “special order” cars through Opel?
We had the Olds Delta 88 as V8 Diesel. Could that be?
GM offered a diesel V-8 in the full-size Oldsmobiles, beginning with the 1978 model year. It turned out to be another Deadly Sin.
I remember that. Can’t GM do anything right? If GM wants to offer a diesel engine for its cars, fine, but they should’ve done a better job than they did.
It did a lot of things right. Just not the X cars and diesel engines.
I knew a teacher who had a Citation when I was a boy. I don’t know how long she had the car, or how she felt about the car, whether it was a reliable car for her.
Yes, the Diesel cars were rather popular in Europa. Of course, due to the fact that diesel fuel is subsidized over there and people are far more familiar with Diesels in the first place.
And, the later versions of the Oldsmobile Diesel had the bugs worked out of them; the cars were fairly reliable. It was that late 1970’s perfect storm of GM ineptitude that the car launched less than perfectly developed and the early versions set the tone for the whole production run.
Fun reading, for what it’s worth: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/battle-of-the-diesel-beaters
thanks.
enjoyed reading that piece.
There is a light blue 5-dr. Citation exactly like the featured car that I see in my hometown at the doctor’s office all the time. I haven’t yet spoken to the owner but if I can catch him someday I will. It is in remarkable condition and seems to run great as well. Truly a rare find!
Going back to the comments regarding 80’s GM products, a few years can make a huge difference in quality for the General. I owned a rare 1984 Buick Century T-type coupe with the awful 3.0 litre V-6. I loved that car, although it was as unreliable as can be. Three engine rebuilds in 70,000 miles was enough for me. I always thought about that car and how much I loved it, and as a result I tried another one several years later – a white 1987 Limited sedan with the T package. What a great car! The 3.8 SFI engine was fast and reliable as hell. I put well over 100,000 miles on that car and never had a major issue with it (one fuel injector gave me some trouble and was replaced, other than that, zilch!) My wife had a 1986 base Cavalier coupe that was absolutely bullet proof. It was built like a little tank and NEVER gave her an ounce of trouble. She put 120,000 miles on that car and got rid of it because rust was taking over the body.
So not all GM cars were totally bad. They put products out much too early before they are perfected, and then over the years as problems arise they fix them, much to the chagrin of the owners.
Same experience here. My 1988 Electra T-Type sedan was the overall best car that I’ve ever owned. I sold it with 221K miles on the original engine and transmission still working great, and just saw it driving less than a year ago while out on my noontime walk. Original front axles, original exhaust system right back to the tailpipe tip, original timing chain – can anybody say that they have a 1988 Accord with over 200K miles on any of those items? Ha ha. 3X timing belt replacements ($) on the Honda whereas my Buick required none.
I say this as somebody who has two Hondas as daily drivers right now. Between me and my sister, our two Odysseys have been through SIX automatic transmissions!
My father-in-law had a company vehicle through the 70, 80s, 90s because he was in outside sales. He had a mixed bag over the years including a Ford Custom without power steering and a 76 Volare that ran well, but you could almost hear it rust away.
He then got a 78 Olds Cutlass that was a very good car that he really enjoyed. Then along came the 81 Citation that was hated above any other car he ever had. The 2.5 liter Iron Duke 4 that was noisy and gutless when he was used to 6 cylinders at least. It was in the shop often for annoying things too.
He was very happy when they gave him a new 84 Celebrity with a 6 cylinder. It seemed to be much improved over the Citation and was the last Chevy he ever owned, as the company switched to Ford Tauruses in 87 and stayed with them until he retired.
My mom traded her 1980 Mazda 626 for an ’82 Citation… I was supposed to get the 626. Thanks, mom.
poor chap. what did you get instead ? 😉
I bought a ’75 Fiat Mirafiori 131s for $350… worth every penny 😉
hehehe
uh….viva italia…..how long did that beast last?
My favorite write-up, ever. I rented a room from an evil old lady on a summer off from college, when I was doing radio in a small town. She had a barf green Pontiac Phoenix with ancient green tires to match. That was the ugliest car I’ve ever seen, ugly right to the core.
Imagine if GM had bungled the ’77 Caprice like that!
Um, well, they kind of did. Consumer reports reported them as a not-recommended for multiple reasons, with the big two being 1) the THM200 Chevette tranny behind a SBC V8 in a full-sized car; and 2) the non-hardened camshaft lobes in the 305 V8.
We ignored that, and foolishly bought one from a retired man (who, in retrospect, undoubtedly had read that report before he sold his) on my paper route that had only 28K miles on it.
At 40K we rebuilt the transmission for the first time.
At 85K, the cam lobes had worn down. We limped it along until 105K when I pulled the motor, swapped in a Turbo 350 tranny, re-sealed and cammed the motor and rebuilt everything bolted onto it. It took me about three months in my parents’ driveway to get it all done.
It was a decent car after that, although the front bench seating position was a non-adjustable 6″ high off of the floor (or so it felt). It was given to my sister after she graduated from college and she kept it for several years thereafter.
The guy who sold us this 1977, shortly thereafter purchased a 1980 version of the exact same car.
By my standards, having to rebuilt the automatic transmission at 40K miles and having a camshaft failure before 100K miles puts it squarely in the lemon category. I knew multiple people who owned X-body cars who never, ever had those kinds of problems with them.
I guess everybody has had different experiences . . . these were mine
Wow , that’s amazing , GM sill had soft cam problems since 1973 that I knew about ~
I well remember a ’73 C 30 pickup with a flat cam , we were trying to figure out which of the dozen or more cams in the Factory Parts Book to choose and in the end we just randomly picked one and slapped it in with a set of new lifters and that 100,000 mile old work truck really came alive ! it’d easily chirp the tires going into second gear (TH350 Slushbox tranny) , or spin the tire from a dead stop if you dropped the hammer .
Fun days , we kept that GM part # for a long time , I don’t like / own and V configuration engines so I let the # get away , I wish I hadn’t .
Over the decades , I have learned that initial cam breakin regimine ” work hardens ” the cam’s lobes and tappet feet , if you just fire it up and let it run slowly or vary the RPM’s , the cam will never bed in properly and will be flat by 50,000 miles ~ maybe that’s what happened to all those millions of 1970’s small block V-8 Chevies ? .
I used to have a Cam Maker’s break in tag , it said 3,500 RPM’s instantly at initial startup and _hold_ it there for at least 60 seconds .
I can tell you , time slows down when you’re holding a freshly rebuilt engine @ 3,500 RPM’s as you watch the sweep second hand go tick………………….tick…………………..tick…………………….tick
-Nate
Which is infuriating…because even the TH200C could have been right, out of the gate! I had an 86 Caprice…TBI 4.3 and 200 Metric trans. It was kind of beat, and looked awful…but ran perfectly, the trans was fine with 160,000 miles. I had to replace a radiator and fix a bunch of little stuff, mostly related to the car sitting for several years, but even at 11 below zero, that car started every time! I was pretty impressed how well the little V6 hauled around that big car. Even without overdrive, I got about 22MPG on my mostly-highway commute.
My first car was a 1981 Chevy Citation that my mom passed down to me. I loved that car from its non working a/c to it’s weird sideways radio. When the 2.8l six gave out my dad and I replaced it with a 3.1l later model engine. It was so much faster that I understeered into a curb and totaled it one day. I still think about that car.
A friend of mine in Junior High had one of these (well, his parents did). Nowadays I would find their driveway very interesting, at the time I was all “What are they thinking” – They had an orange and black AMC Hornet Sportabout wagon, which was semi-retired in favor of an Oldsmobile with the Salon fake hatchback body, that was then replaced by a Citation (I rode in it a couple of times and thought the radio orientation bizarre but it got us where we were going) and then that was replaced in fairly short order by a new Chevy Nova (The NUMMI Toyota Corolla clone). That one they kept for as long as I stayed friends with my buddy, I have no idea if they knew it was really a Toyota or if they just figured GM somehow got more reliable…
The elephant in the room no one discusses is this: every miserable part in a Cavalier or Citation was designed and approved for production by engineers. Do we have a retired GM engineer out there who will explain why GM repeatedly put on the market such crappy components? Possible explanations include: (a) the engineers were incompetent; (b) the engineers spent their careers drunk or high; (c) the engineers wanted to sabotage the company; (d) managers told the engineers to design crap; (e) all of the above.
If you’ve ever worked in Corporate America, you wouldn’t need to ask that question. Such predictable outcomes. Thank God I’m out of that Hell!
Jerry, what your missing is: Designed by competent engineers. Then the parts are costed down by accountants. Sent back to the engineers to redesign to get them down to a price. Engineers may not be happy doing this, but it is there job.
Alternate scenario: Designed by competent engineers. Then the parts are costed down by accountants. Said part is redesigned by the supplier’s engineers to meet the price limits set by the accountants. This takes the company’s engineers out of the loop and the job is done by other engineers who are only working on one part, not the whole system.
Meanwhile, the part itself, redesigned, meets the specs set up by accounting (which has probably been dropped once or twice since the initial design, to get the cost down). It meets the initial intent, which, hopefully, lasts out the warranty period. After that, its not the manufacturer’s worry.
And that how all (repeat: ALL) mass market auto companies do it. You want to drive a car where the engineers have more say than the accountants? Better start saving up for the Ferrari. Or Bugatti.
The real difference between auto companies is how much say the accountants have over the designers. Smart companies rely on the accountants to keep costs in check, but keep a willingness to spend money for quality. Too many companies (read: GM) put the money first, second, third, fourth and sixth. The product itself comes in fifth, at best.
Add to this (which is all true) the fact that GM, like many automakers, didn’t generally have a “platform team” approach. If you were an interior lighting engineer, for instance, you’d be working on interior lighting for all the cars the division produced. So, a lot of the people involved in each project wouldn’t really be in a position to view the product holistically, particularly if it hadn’t been released yet. (That’s also why a lot of cars tend to improve in quality in various obvious and non-obvious ways later in life: Subsequent revisions are informed by real-world experience with actual cars rather than sets of component specifications.)
What I have always wondered.
In the corporate hierarchy of GM is anyone held accountable for mistakes like the Vega ,or Citation? Are there any sacrificial Lambs?
Or do they just solider on with the next years model?
I had read somewhere that GM was(is) so bloated and slow to react to production /engineering issues that the consumer ultimately pays the price.
Failure at GM was usually shown by a lack of, or complete end to, promotion – not by firing for incompetence. If somebody started out designing door handles and thirty years later hasn’t progressed beyond speedometer dials, its painfully obvious that he’s either pissed somebody off way above him, big time; or, his design ability is only good enough to be trusted to small jobs where another 10-15 designers are working on alternatives.
(Don’t laugh, my boss at A.R. Adams Cycle in the early 70’s was a designer for Ford in the fifties before coming back to Erie to take over the family business. His only big accomplishment was the “big M” logo on the ’55-58 or so Mercurys. Period. One day, he brought in a load of his design stuff from the early-mid 50’s before he left for me to look at. Its obvious why he left. In 1955, his original designs would have been more appropriate for a 1952 Mercury. He was a good technical draftsman, but didn’t have a design bone in his body. It was painfully obvious that he considered leaving Ford for Schwinn/Raleigh was a huge step down, but he was one of those guy who’s biggest talent would have been to take the original part and dumb it down to meet the specs demanded by accounting. I seriously doubt he was alone in the company.)
Jerry, I think it was a combination of corporate cynicism combined with bean counters run amok. The engineers and GM Design ruled the roost until Alfred Sloan retired, and over time the accountants took over. Everything wrong with the Vega, for example, can be pinned at least indirectly to bean counters.
Today it seems engineering and design are having the final say at GM, and the final product is vastly improved.
My daughter just leased a new Chevy Equinox at Thanksgiving time, the deals were hard to pass up. I’ve been in them several times before, even had it’s Terrain cousin as a daily rental once when parts didn’t come in on time for my G6. But I spent some time traveling in town in the back of the ‘Nox and it’s really not a bad place to spend some time.
Hers is the LS which is the least expensive one, but it seems very well screwed together (thanks, CAMI!)(No sunroof on this car). Even being the lowest trim level, the seat fabrics are very nice, the back seat seems pretty decent (none of those things ever do my back any favors, though).
One of the ladies at church has the previous generation of the ‘Nox and I’ve spent some seat time in that one (great for hauling stuff to the food pantry!), but the newer ones seem much better assembled.
I hope this is a continuation of a trend with GM, as there haven’t been too many misses lately, excepting the ignition key controversy.
I believe that the deadliest automotive sin is that Chevrolet continued the Citation line, despite customer complaints of problems with the car. Shouldn’t Chevrolet have fixed the problems *during* production and development, rather than wait until it’s sold to customers?
Without a doubt, GM worked overtime designing and building some bad cars in the 1980s. Any one of their duds would have sunk a smaller company, but GM was so big, it kept sailing along as if nothing happened. X-bodies, Olds diesels, the Rocket V8/Chevy debacle, …
Still, you could buy some solid GM cars, but you had exercise your due diligence to find them.
I ordered a new 81 Skylark based on the Car of the Year selection and the specs; fwd, roomy, thrifty V6, etc. Sporty too – got the 4 spd manual.
First impression – the black paint had more orange peel than a Florida orchard. The 4 spd cable transmission was the most balky, artificial feeling thing I’d ever shifted.
At about 60 days it sprang a fuel leak in the engine compartment that if I hadn’t caught would have turned it into a flaming torch – in the shop for several days. Then the transmission locked up – back to the shop for a week while parts were ordered. Then the clutch started acting up – back to the shop……
When it emerged, I went right to the Olds dealer and traded it for a…………Olds Cutlass diesel………. which, surprisingly, never spent a night in the shop.
Don’t be surprised. My father had a (no, this is not a joke) grey Buick LeSabre diesel station wagon (I don’t think it was offered in brown that year). One of his first Buicks, and instrumental in dropping Chevrolet for Buick for almost the rest of his life. A very good car. Don’t remember the year.
Another great article Paul…I owned a 1980 Skylark and it was the worst car I ever owned; I’m not going to try and list all the problems it had-that would make this post way too long, but it was the last GM automobile I owned. As far as being GM’s greatest sin in my opinion it’s tied with the Corvair for that dubious distinction. After Ralph Nader published his book “Unsafe At Any Speed” GM officials did unethical things like taping his telephone and tailing him; when news of this became public it was a tremendous public relations disaster for GM-Congress passed the Highway Traffic Safety Act which led to the founding of the NHTSA and now cars are equipped with all manner of safety equipment. Yes, the X-Cars were terrible vehicles, but GM’s record with small cars ranges from at best mediocrity to failure, because GM always regarded small cars as toys to keep the natives happy while they went along with their grandiose plans to put a Cadillac or SUV in everyone’s garage. Maybe their automobiles are better today, but about the time I think it’s safe to venture back into a GM dealership along comes events like the ignition switch recall-I don’t think GM has changed that much over the years, I’ll continue to avoid their vehicles like the plague.
We had a Citation as a loaner in 1980 while my dad’s ’77 Buick Century was in the shop after an accident. My dad really liked it, and he let my sister and I drive it as well. (I was 17 and didn’t even get my beginners until the next year). Everyone I knew who had an X-body liked them…initially. We got another 6 good years out of the Century after it was fixed. I don’t think a Citation would have done nearly as well, and I honestly don’t remember the last time I saw any X-body cars on the road. The A-bodies that came after, on the other hand, are still on the road even here in Ontario, and I’ve seen many still in good shape. GM can build a good car…too bad they generally choose to rest on their laurels.
I saw one of these driving about in Tacoma, WA the other day. It immediately drew my attention with the large cloud of smoke pouring from under the hood loud clattering the miserable little motor was making, which was clearly audible even over my loud music. Amazed at spotting a running driving X car in the wild, I couldn’t help but stare as I saw it pull up to the light and very quickly stop running or driving as the cloud of smoke grew thicker and darker. It was at that moment that a very haggard looking man in his early 40’s who looked like he had seen better times back when Motley Crue was still touring kicked open the driver door and stomped out on to the pavement and pulled up the hood. He tossed his cap on the ground, stomping, swearing, and swinging his arms much like when a crank-start jalopy breaks down in an old timey cartoon as the cars behind him started honking and swerving around him. I wondered what stroke of misfortune lead that man to drive that rusted misshapen hulk.
Kind of makes one wonder who in their right mind would let their car deteriorate to the point where it starts smoking like that.
I have spent almost a decade doing charity automotive repair work as part of a church ministry so I’ve seen cars like a 1988 Cavalier with almost 300K miles on it (and no working headlights or wipers) that were still being driven (and/or lived in) because that’s all that they had.
The fact that smoke was coming from underneath the hood was probably the least of this person’s worries . . . up until that moment you saw him, at any rate.
A good Christmastime reminder to be thankful for all that you have, for I can assure you that there are people in your area (wherever you are – I live in an affluent area and many people hide quite literally in the forests between the neighborhoods) that are worse off.
I’ve never been a fan of earlier Cavaliers. They weren’t bad looking overall, but its nose was unattractive.
I remember as a kid I used to see these cars everywhere and I was always under the assumption that they were good vehicles due to how common these cars were, little did I know they’ve turned out to be one of the worst cars to come out of Detroit, I personally thought the X-body cars looked better in the Oldsmobile/Buick versions than the Chevrolet/Pontiac versions, for some odd reason I see more Buick Skylark’s of this vintage than I do with the Chevy Citation’s.
My Uncle had an Iron Duke Skylark run 150k without much fuss. They seemed to be much better than the Chevy X-car. I didn’t even realize they were related for many years.
My wife purchased two Pontiac X body models back in the early 1980s
while working for PMD-GM.
They were called Phoenix, both 5 dr. hatch backs.
She only kept each for a year and moved on to larger Pontiac models.
No problems arose during the short ownership.
What ever happened with the Quad Four engine, she had one in a Grand -Am model it was a super noisy engine. Gm said they were going to build a Quad 6 and 8 cyl.
But never did……..it was a flop!
My 1980 Phoenix had the Iron Duke. That was GM’s deal. Objects that are given nicknames they haven’t earned are cruisin’ for a bruisin’, and this one was never earned. Two years ago in a comment, I said I got about 100K out of mine before replacing it, but my memory now tells me the figure was closer to 95K. Most engines nowadays aren’t even getting their timing belts changed until over 100K miles.The pontiac 4 was noisy, and I remember thinking it was best that it only had 90 hp, because the torque steer was quite noticeable. As for the manual trans I had to wait 6 months for, it was a POS of the worst kind. Once the car got up to speed it was a smooth cruiser, but there was a lot of downshifting, along with holding the lever to keep it from popping out. It’s all too bad, because the X-Cars still look great to me, especially the notchback coupes. They arguably had more presence than the K-Cars, which looked somewhat flimsy and upright by comparison.
Barry, there have been three Iron Duke/Tech 4 driven cars in my family: 84 Olds Ciera, 84 Citation II and an 86 Olds Calais [still in the family, little brother bought a 98 Tracker, so it may become mine {again} soon].
When I bought the Citation I became keenly aware of the sound of an Iron Duke rattling by. They all sounded the same, but different. I could tell an X Body with the 4 from a block away.
Flooring them provides much sound and fury signifying nothing.
The basic idea was good. The project ,which was initiated in 1969 with the total automotive systems concept, has suffered of several delays. Early, the car would have had to use the Ed Cole’s rotary engine (again him) and its compactness would have been perfect in a FWD car but as it was aborted for its unreliability, thirsty and its bad level pollutions, the Chevy’s engineers had to find another solutions for the powertrain. Furthermore, I think that the main GM’s mistake was to turn this Chevy’s project into a corporate project, for instance, they had to use the Pontiac’s “Iron Duke” engine whereas they should have create a “homemade” brand-new engine.
The rotary was planned for the H Body, Vega based Monza and it’s clones. AMC built the Pacer intending on buying the rotary from GM.
The “Iron Duke” was a direct response to the Vega all aluminum engine and the name chosen to deflect comparison with the “2300”.
In the Tasc Program, the rotary was planned for a fwd powertrain. Ihttp://www.deansgarage.com/2010/gm-styling-images-from-the-early-%E2%80%9960s/
Furthermore, GM had a deal with Amc. Initially, Amc had to fit this powertrain into the Pacer.
AMC designing the Pacer around GM’s “vaporware” rotary seems incredibly stupid.
Yes, stupid. all this money could have been better used in the Gm x-cars program and a good range of engines. Finally, gm for their x-cars and amc for the pacer, had the same issue: Find another not really adapted engines .
I have had my 1982 Citation X-11 (HO 2.8L/3speed TH125) back on the road for about 6 months. I take it out 1-2x a week as the shake-down process continues: find new problem, fix it, discover new problem, rinse and repeat.
My thoughts are that for a 34 year old economy car, it’s really not as bad as the reputation they acquired back in the day. It puts into perspective how “luxurious” gadget filled our cars have become – its a huge, stark difference between my 2007 Volvo V70 and the Citation – which the original owner had ordered with power windows, power locks, cruise control and tilt-wheel – pretty well kitted out for a 1982 car.
The positives: visibility is so much better than any contemporary car. The interior space utilization is remarkable – particularly for a vehicle that is shorter and narrower than my wagon (and fit easily in the garage).
The negatives are that the ergonomics are pretty out there. The 1980’s pre-“button explosion” cars were better.
It does remind you immediately of how far we have come with electronic fuel injection. The car has a computer controlled Rochester carburetor. You — must — set the choke on a cold start. It will not start on the first try if it has been sitting for an extended length of time – its got a mechanical fuel pump, so to fill the float bowl, it has to be cranked at least once.
You wonder how we ever got along with a non-lockup 3 speed automatic. Where you’d expect to feel a lockup, there isn’t one. The engine is in the 3500/4000 rpm range at 60+ mph highway speeds. Which seems really high compared a newer car.
As a 1982, the brakes are fine. They have not locked up on me yet in a panic stop.
The interior plastics – and as a Chevy without the upgraded interior, it’s very plastic. But the design doesn’t feel “cheap” like a current Japanese or Korean economy car of the same class always seems to.
One thing that should be noted: in 1982 the A-bodies launched. Even then, Americans seemed to prefer a three-box design over a 3 or 4 door hatch. Minus the quality control stigma and a more appealing configuration, X-body (and particular Citation) sales were destined to drop.
Steve, your Citation used a lock up torque converter. The switch has obviously been disconnected. When they go out, when coming to a stop the car will buck, jerk and stall much like a manual left in high gear.
My Calais did it. My Citation did it and I mistakenly had the transmission replaced.
On the Olds, I had the torque converter switch disconnected [somewhere around 1999], and it drives just as you describe your Citation as doing.
The torque converter switch dying and “morning sickness” of the steering rack were common problems on both Xs and As.
Re: starting procedures, carbureted cars take a pump of the gas pedal first, which primes the carburetor for ignition.
Hope that helps a little. I loved my 84 Citation II Club Coupe [notchback] and wish I’d never traded it for the Calais.
For what’s worth:
A rough and dirty count suggests that GM sold about 1.7 million of these cars. Today, 13 November 2016 finds Zero Citations of any year for sale on the Dallas Craigslist…Dallas where we have zero rust. However, there are a 1980 VW Rabbit, and a 1980 Corolla SR-5 for sale..
And to be completely unfair about it, I found 32 1965 Mustangs for sale…
Thanks for that. I watched the whole thing, even though I don’t understand a word of German. It’s a sickness.
65db: very quiet car, one of the things I liked most about the 84 I had.
What strikes me reading this a second time several years later is how AUSTERE these cars are. The inner B pillar structure is exposed on the outside, the seats are flat, there’s no water temp gauge; in a comparable Datsun, Mazda, Toyota, Honda, etc, you could expect to see a more comprehensively finished product, and you could generally expect adjustable headrests, a fifth gear, more upholstered surfaces.
This plays a big part, I think, in what turned the public off. Yes, the engine was rough and the brakes locked, but these were presented in a very stingy fashion all around. Lots of vinyl, lots of nickel-and-diming for extras.
Let’s not forget that showroom appeal was generally lacking.
The optional gauge package got you a tach, oil pressure, ammeter and water temperature gauges.
These things were improved quite a bit starting in MY ’82. They had a relocated and improved steering gear which eliminated much of the “crabbing” of the first two model years, plus the build quality was arguably a bit better, as well. My Dad had an ’84 Skylark Limited with the 2.8 V6 and it ran ok and was comfy. The car was about 10 yrs old when he bought it, but it was in good shape and had been well-maintained. I remember the heavy doors seemed quite clunky, however. It had morning sickness with the steering rack, but never had problems with the brakes.
But the huge damage to GM’s rep had been done. I’m surprised Paul doesn’t consider this GM’s #1 DS as it lead the charge to a 30 year decline into bankruptcy. So much promise, so much disappointment.
Paul did call it the ‘deadliest’ sin, so I guess that means it’s the worst.
However, there are some caveats that are worth mentioning in those production figures. That big first year was actually a year and a half (like the first year Mustang). Someone else posted that the first year (1980) was really closer to 539k (with the rest of the 811k more like 1979 figures). Still nothing to sneeze at, though.
Then, there’s that big drop-off for 1982. As stated, I would wager that the A-body launch sucked up a whole bunch of sales that might otherwise have went to the X-body. So there are mitigating factors to consider when dissing how quickly Citation sales went downhill.
I’m not saying that the Citation doesn’t deserve all the vitriol it gets, particularly if personal experience is involved. Still, some seemingly dismal negatives should be taken with a grain of salt.
Lots of wisdom here from armchair quarterbacks. I guess we have two lines or suggestion.
1. Instead of FWD have the Nova X body just get a modest redo like the Maverick-Fairmont transition 18 months before;
I think that would be a deadly sin of sloth. VW went FWD, heck even Chrysler. To not go FWD is to let the bean counters hold sway and make your new offerings almost immediately antique.
2. Always a favorite around here, make it more like a 3 year later Camry.
That might have seemed easier than the route taken. A single lightweight 2.0 OHC engine. Less stress on the drivetrain, less torque steer. Less chance of failure. Although my Consumer Guide says that the 83-84 Camry suffered failures with the automatic, ignition module, and oil pump gasket.
The deadly sin here was tuning a small roomy car to American tastes with V6s and majority automatics and creature comforts. Overseas models did not have this and could see no way to offer it in 78 or even 88. Thank God that the first x cars had a few issues. Beter to harp on that than wonder why your option is so sparsely equipped.
The Fox (Fairmont) wasn’t a “modest redo” of the Falcon platform, but a clean-sheet redesign, other than in its driveline. Yes, Ford could’ve done it FWD as we armchair quarterbacks know, but it at least served them well in the period before the Taurus was developed.
And in 1982-85, Ford’s offerings seemed really retrograde to those of us in the buying public. FWD was modern. The Fox platform is much more popular now than it was in the first half of the 80s, at least for compact and midsized sedans. The Fairmont and LTD/Marquis of 1982-85 was sort of like the 1946-48 Ford with its transverse springs in their respective markets. Nothing wrong with them as far as basic automotive service, but definitely obsolete.
Honestly, the general consensus here seems to be that the FWD X-body was a fair way towards being a really good car for 1980 — good size, good packaging, a very reasonable-looking modern family vehicle — but was let down by often-infuriating indifference and/or cheaping out on the execution and details.
That’s the deadly sin. Do American tastes require engines that feel and sound like tractors, abrupt rear brake lockup, or feeling like the front end is held on with rubber bands? And I thought I was cynical about these things…
You’re dead bang on ~ the first year they came out it sold like hot cakes because it looked good and was cheap to buy and (theoretically) maintain .
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I _LOVED_ mine as did my then Wife .
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Then the troubles began =8-^ .
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The Iron Duke wasn’t tractor like in any way ~ it was just a small engine that could and unless you foolishly thrashed it trying to force it to do things it wasn’t designed to do, it was just a buzzy little thing with not much power .
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-Nate
Though not only applicable to the X cars, I agree re: the details, aka the component parts. The rear brake valve and the subframe bushings could easily been added/changed with little change in cost. These details are where the Japanese manufacturers overtook the competition in the ’80s and continue to a lesser degree to this day.
Count me on-board with this as a Deadly Sin. I’m also on-board with the idea that they sinned three times with small cars at the beginning of a decade. The Corvair, Vega, and Citation all contained items they knew or should have known were likely to cause problems, and they pushed them through to the buyer anyway.
If that sort of idiocy isn’t a sin in any business, there are no sins.
The GM ignition switch scandal fits this pattern. If looking for a Sin to round out the series, that may be their most recent.
What were they thinking? Why would GM imagine that people would tolerate crap like this? Were they just cheaping out in construction and hoping nobody would notice?
It’s just occurred to me that the citation is a dead ringer for the Moskvitch Aleko, a Soviet sorta reverse engineered Chrysler alpine. That was a piece of crap too, even by Russian standards.
> Of course numbers don’t tell the whole story, but I challenge you to find another newly introduced car that did so well in its first year and whose sales collapsed so spectacularly thereafter.
Corvair and AMC Pacer come quickly to mind, although both had some good years at the start.
Those fenders and side sheet metal job screams 70’s.
1980 Citation sales #’s are high, since that first model year ran from April ’79 to summer [Aug?] 1980.
Corvair was tainted by Nadar and comedian Ernie Kovacs dying in a crash in one, before seat belts were standardized.
I had not known the Celebrity was a derivative of the Citation.
A rental Citation unit was made available to me in Florida in 1982. It was considered an upgrade from whatever the lowest model on the lot was. I didn’t mind it, in the sense that it started every time and got me from point A to B, but that is as far as details are concerned that I can recall.
Lee ;
You really were lucky ! .
Until it broke a Citation was the -perfect- economy car .
Then the rear brakes locked up at speed for no apparent reason, then the power steering would piss out all the fluid, then…….
Chevrolet had a wniier on thier hands then the bean counters killed it dead .
Apparently they fixed the problems and used the X-Car platform to success elsewhere but drove most low cost buyers away forever .
-Nate
When I received a 1982 Citation, it had only 6 miles on it. It practically still had an attached imbilcal cord. It was my first real new car, although it was for my job. I felt like I did when I got my own pair of white boxers, instead of a pair my brother previously wore. My company bought a fleet of identical white Citations – and I was one of the guys who got one for his own usage since I traveled non-stop throughout Colorado. It was not the car I would have selected, but it was NEW – and it was MINE!
White, with a burgundy vinyl interior. And what’s that? A CUP HOLDER? Holy crap! That was as good as having FWD! It was large enough for a family bucket of Diet Coke from Gopher Foods. With a long enough straw, I could drive a long time – and if I used a catheter, I could drive all day! It was a roomy machine, odd looking, very nerdy, but it was huge inside. The four door had a large hatch. It could swallow up alot of stuff with the rear seat folded down. It had air conditioning and cruise control.
That first week out was a honeymoon. 32 miles per gallon – that was stunning. Yes, it was gutless, noisy and struggled up Kenosha Pass, but the newness of that Citation soothed any fears of mechanical failure. The engine sounded like it wasn’t tuned, but I was confident that our intrepid garage folks could quiet the knocking and pinging coming from under the hood.
Back in Denver that Friday, I took my new Citation out to get a car wash after a week’s accumulation of road dirt. I twisted the black plastic switch and blasted the front of the car with lots of white foamy soap. Wow – a lot was coming off that front end, so it was grimey? I came closer to the grille and bumper to remove every bit of road dirt.
To my horror I twisted the black plastic knob to “rinse” and discovered that it wasn’t road dirt that was being blasted off the front of my new Citation. It was all the chrome. My new Citation now had a light grey plastic grille. I ruined my new car? I was sickened when I returned to the garage and told the guys what had happened. That is when I learned that the fleet of new Citations were a fleet of crappy lemons.
The staff driving the other Citations had problems that were a lot bigger than blasting the chrome off of a grille. Rear brake lock-up on I-25, engine problems on the Foothills Parkway. A problem with a new Citation at the Boulder location and other mishaps. Week-old cars that couldn’t make it a week without needing to be returned to the dealership. They dutifully recorded by issue and I was told that I shouldn’t be surprised.
By the end of that summer, my Citation had left me stranded daily. Honest – daily. I would drive it into the mountains, the engine grinding and popping like a tin toy all the way, and after two hours – the engine would shut down, leaving me about 100 miles away from Denver. The company needed to rent other cars to replace the Citations at the Chevrolet dealership. My replacement car was a new Ford Escort. When my Citation was “fixed”, I would return the Escort and take another trip in the Citation. Then it would break down again 100 miles away from Denver. It did this for a few months until after wasting another week at the Chevy dealership – someone over there discovered that my car had a crack in the distributor cap. After 100 miles, the crack expanded – and the car would shut down. Fixed!
Within a short time, there was a new set of problems. However, since these smaller issues didn’t prevent me from driving the Citation – I drove it around with these problems. During this time, I noticed that the front door stopped fully closing, leaving a nice finger-wide gap at the A pillar that was causing the air whistiling I often heard. On one cold crisp morning, all the knobs lost their identifying labels – the glue used failed in the cold, causing all the silver labels to flake onto the floor during the cold night. So, from then on, you had to try each black knob to discover what each did. The transmission started to complain through the floor on uphill climbs.
Then the Citation started to leak. The mechanics discovered that the engine had broken all the subframe mounts and on uphill mountain climbs, twisted itself repeatedly in such a way that it broke the water pump housing, causing the Citation to leak. That took a while to fix.
During these days and weeks in the shop, I drove around in the little Escort. I discovered that although it was a smaller car – it was a fun and dependable one. I didn’t want to return it to pick up my Lemony Citation, but I was fortunate to have the use of nice new cars and dutifully complied.
By the end of the year, all the Citations, except for mine, were long gone and replaced by J cars. There was a lot of anger between my company and the Chevy dealership over the Citation fiasco and the fleet of X Cars killed the contract agreement between the two businesses.
My new supervisor was unaware of these car issues, so when I didn’t want to use the Citation on my next trip to Keystone Resort – she thought I was being spoiled and to prove it – took my car! At the end of the first day at the Resort – she still hadn’t shown up for the meetings that were arranged. Hmmm! She showed up the following day and told us that my car left her stranded at the i-70 exit for Silver Plume the day before.
That was the end of my experiences with my once-new 1982 Citation.
Just so ~ I foolishly bought a cherry (!) 1982 Citation four door, it was a hot mess to say the least .
Some years later I got to maintain and occasionally drive a 1982 two door Escort ‘L’ (stripper) it was incredibly cheap and crude but soldiered on faithfully for several years in spite of having been treated like a red haired step child previously .
Those Escorts were -so- cheaply built you had to bend the unibody to make some of the front end adjustments but I didn’t mind driving it and it was dirt cheap to run and reliable, what the Citation could have been .
-Nate
The Citation had a cup holder???
I know this is missing the forest for the trees, but I can’t fathom a 1982 Chevy having one.
Here’s an interesting chart:
Sales AMC Pacer Citation
Year 1 145K 811K
Year 2 120K 83% 413K 51%
Year 3 20K 13% 166K 20%
Year 4 8K 6% 92K 11%
The Citation is very Pacer-esque!
Which is sad, because the Pacer was doomed because it was ill-conceived. The Citation was actually a pretty good package, ruined by almost insanely stupid execution. As was pointed out, it could have been GM’s Camry before the Camry.
My Chev Citation was a strong runner, had excellent a/c, was good in snow. I had it from spring 82- Feb 86. Needed too , too many repairs; build quality was “almost nil”.
Paint actually stayed quite good though. Silver/navy blue tutone. Blue cloth vinyl inside. Bucket seats//console// yada yada. In short, “optioned up”.
What more can be said…
My concern is GM EV……will GM commit the same mistakes with new technology using Joe America as its proving grounds like it did with the X-body, HT 4.1 engine, GM 10 platform, Chevy Bolt fires, etc, etc,….
Let GM EV cut its teeth with someone else’s money before I come back to the GM fold…if I ever do.
It’s a bit odd to see a comment you made eight years ago in a thread and compare your current view. But when I added to the discussion in 2014 I pretty much nailed my feelings forever about my 1980 Phoenix. Count me as one of those who had drooled over the X cars in all the magazines. Making the choice of which brand to buy came down to body style and looks. As a youngish bachelor, I wanted a two door notch-back. The Skylark was high on my list, but I was into the sports looking aspects of Pontiacs in those days – full instrumentation, deep, round gauges — even the extra fake torx screws molded into the dash facia. I saw “American BMW three series” in the possibilities of a Phoenix. Investing 6 months, waiting for the car to come off the assembly line encouraged leniency in judging the car’s faults, which were legion. But there were aspects of it I stlll remember fondly– the packaging was perfect for an American compact. If only it wasn’t such a sh*tbox.
A lot of people drooled over the X-body when it came out. But after they actually experienced ownership of one, that drool changed to angry foaming at the mouth.